I have a 2000 3.0 4x4 5 spd ranger
I was leaving my brothers house last night and I tried to take off out of his driveway when all of a sudden I hear this loud clunk and boom and then nothing. My truck wont move. I take it out of gear and put it in reverse and it goes but there is a clunk, clunk when I let go of the clutch and start to move. Same with 1st and 2nd gear. It will go but it feels like I am trying to haul 10 tons behind me and the noise is coming from the drivers side rear axle. I thought u-joints, but no my driveshaft is still there and I got under it and my brother put it in gear and it clunks like crazy on that side. Would you reccomend replacing the whole rear end axle or what. And where can I find one cheap. I know junk yards but they are a little shady sometimes.

 

you might have busted your ring and pinion gears......if you didn't have enough lube in the tube, very well could have happen.....

if you preplace the whole axle expect to pay at least $200 from a junk yard for a complete unit...

 

i went to work on switching the gears out and i got underneatht the truck and saw something interesting. it looked like a piece of metal had peirced through my diff cover and out. i took the cover off and tons of big and little pieces of metal fell out. yeah its the gears. i am going to try to replace them myself.

i was wanting to put a 4.10 gear in it. it is a 7.5. but i read here that you have to keep the front and rear gears the same. is this true?

or can you switch the back out and then the front later on?

would it be worth it to switch to 4.10?

 

also when i took the cover off it looked like it had gear oil in it instead of auto trans fluid. the book says to use auto trans fluid.

what do you recommend?

 

the rear end uses gear oil.. ATF for the manual tranny

 

yeah you can do the back first then the front but you better not plan on putting it in 4-wheel drive anytime before you get the front changed to match the back, not a pretty sight, had friend that had the rear changed out and thought that a short time in 4x4 wouldn't do much...he was wrong and ended up with a mess up front. try and do them together, then you don't have to worry.

 

well if you do have a 7.5, being a 4x4 i don't think you do, but check out www.car-part.com for local junkyards.

 

I am pretty sure that it is the 4.0's that have the 8.8. In any case check the JY's and find yourself a nice 8.8 ls. If you are going to do your gears seperately you might think about removing the front drive shaft you so don't "forget" about the different gearing.

 

 

Here are a couple pics of the cover and the pieces of the gears in the cover. It is a bad pic so I'll take another one and post it along with the gears in the rear end.

 

Also I found on ebay a whole ring and pinion set up already put together.
here is the link.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...069073702&rd=1
do I have to do anything special to put this in or just take the axle shafts away and put it in then reinstall the axle shafts and cover. Do I have to shim it?

 

i know you dont want to hear this but that is prety sweet! i have never seen a ring gear puncture the cover before!

on that carrier, you should check the backlash of your gears after you install it even if it is the same carrier you currently have because every carrier may have its little differences...

 

My vote would be find a 8.8 that has 4.10's in it. Stronger rear end. Also im not sure what year your truck is but 98 and newer i was quoted 2000 to have someone do the front gears. Most of it is labor cause everything has to come apart.

 

^^^$2,000? they saw you coming!

shouldn't cost more than $1000 to do gears in the front of a '98+ Ranger.....espically if you supply the gears and install kit.......and that is only around $275.......

crap it only would take about 7-8 hours for someone who knows what they are doing.....and even with labor rates at $100 an hour that is only $800....

 

I'm just going to stick with the 7.5 3.73 now cause I dont have the money right now to do it the other way.
I should say this on the blow-off valve forum but no money cause the wife left me about 4 months ago and took everything. The bad part is we just had our daughter in April and she moved in with my sister. Enough of that.
My brother and I are attempting this job and my dad is spotting us cause he knows what he is doing. Hopefully it will get done soon.

 

well if you need the gears. I have the spare set of 3.73s out of my last axle I believe. I cant remember if they are here at school or back at home. I'll double check. Let me know if your intrested though. The ring and pinion are fine, the spyder gears just broke. Ive already been through 2 7.5"s before I got smart and got a 8.8". I'll sell em for $60 if ya want them. Think ive got a spare dif cover as well.

 

Yeah im going to try another shop and see. Thats what he said upwards of 8 hrs of work. Now that you say something thats redicoulous lol

 

how do i know if i have a 7.5 or and 8.8

 

you have an 8.8.......Ford never put in a 7.5 axle with a 4.0........you can look on your door tag and look under were it says AXL and read the code......

then look here to find what gear ratio you have and if you have a L/S...
http://pedia.rangerresource.net/inde...tle=Axle_Codes

that is a write up i did on all the axle codes for the Ranger and Explorer....

 

ok thx... so i think i have an 8.8 with a 3.73 open diff... eh...

 

that is a pretty common combo in a 8.8 Ranger...

 

thanks for the offer for your gears uncc but i got a whole ring and pinion assembly with spiders gears already assembled for 50 bucks on ebay. that eliminates a big a$$ hassle of putting it together yourself and a lot of time too. i wished i had the 8.8 in mine and the money to go to 4.10's. LUCKY.

 

ill post pics of the wreckage tonight. i got in there and it was bad. spider gears in pieces and the pinion shaft bolt thing was cracked and bent so i had to dremel cut the teeth on the ring gear to get the pinion shaft out to get the axle shaft c-clips out. but finally got it all out. now the fun part of cleaning all the metal shavings and pieces out of the diff.

 

not a problem. be sure if you do it your self, to read up on some tech forums on setting the backlash. If not, you'll be doing it again within this year.

heres some specs.

backlash

hope that helps ya a bit in your process.