how hard is it to instal gears in a 8.8 explorer axle? ive never attempted gears before so just wondering if this is something i can do with out screwing up bad?

 

It's not hard but you have to have special tools to do it right, i.e. dial indicator, calipers or a micrometer, bearing pullers, bearing press, long breaker bar or impact gun, pry bars, ball pein hammer, plastic dead blow hammer, assorted brass punches, foot pounds torque wrench, inch pounds torque wrench, etc.

If you do a quick google search you will find a ton of step-by-step write-ups on gear installations. Just read up on one and you will know right away if you are up to it or not.

 

Pick yourself up the Randy's Differentials book. I learned ALOT from it. I was going to do my own gear setup, but the cost of all the tools I don't have, it was cheaper for me to have it done for me.

Randy's Ring & Pinion. The Differential Experts. Auto Parts & Services. is where you grab the book.

 

lol, with a tool list like that, it automatically become hard, imo

 

I just did this two weeks ago on my buddies mustang 8.8. It wasn't to difficult. The main tools that I needed was a dial indicator, bearing separator, torque wrench, calipers and map gas. I did everything with just those tools. The best suggestion I have is run Ford Racing gears and you can measure the pinion depth with a vernier caliper instead of the 200 dollar tool. With the stock carrier there are one piece shims on both sides of the carrier which set the pre-load and are used to set the backlash. The only catch with ford gears is that you can only move the shims once to set the backlash and hope its within spec. If not you need to get different carrier shims.