Well Im pretty sure my rear dif is hooped, bearings and what not, ie terrible grinding noise coming from back there. Now I have some decisions to make.....

Get the dif rebuilt costing me like 700 bucks in parts and labor I think the guy said...

OR would now be the time to do an axle swap? Right now I have a 7.5 with 3.73 gears...

I was thinking I could try to get an 8.8 out of an Explorer with 4.10 gears and limited slip if I got lucky, and disc brakes as a bonus. Or even just go with the 8.8 with 3.73 and worry about gearing later on.

What is going to be the best bang for my buck here??

And I was also wondering about gears. If I do get a new axle that has 4.10 gears how much more cost and work is it to do the front dif gears to 4.10? Obviously that needs to be done right away too, right?

And lastly for running 32 or 33" mudders is the 4.10 gears a good way to go for my truck?

I know I have a lot of questions but im I have a alot of decisions I need to make by this weekend, as I cant afford to have my truck off the road for long. I would really appreciate and advice I can get. Thanks guys

 

I know I can get an 8.8 from a junk yard for under $300.

 

take it to the bad part of town, light it on fire and walk away. say it was stolen and recieve insurance monies.