Before you jump me I have searched but didn't find exactly what i was looking for. Question is if you ordered new ring/pinion/install kits (actually knew what your doing) and installed them yourself, what else goes along with that as far as re-programming the comp or something? I've been readin on here what some of you guys have paid for gears and install and no offense but it's freakin ridiculous to me. Is there something else that must be done by "experts" on these trucks that I dont know about?

 

if you dont already know then honestly i wouldnt try it yourself. getting them set correctly takes hours of installing and uninstalling the gears, using marking compound, reading the marks, adding shims, and doing it over and over again. if its not done by a professional that gears will SURELY whine and could be trashed pretty quickly. as far as the computer it will have to be set for the new gears

 

like SoundPer4mance said if you havent done a ring and pinion before or arent a pretty good mech i would not try it, i have done many ring and pinions and this is not for the shadetree mech, after you have the new ring and pinion in, your PCM (powertrain control module) will need to be set up fot the new gears, this is done to calabrate the speedomiter and tranny shift points, this can be done with a programer that plugs into your obd2 port

 

Ive done ring and pinions before and I wont do them on this truck. I was quoted $1400 complete for front and rear including speedo recalibration and a no whine guarantee. Since Idont have the special bearings for mock up and probably a few other specialized tools I'd just assume pay it to know its 100% right and I have the ability to have it fixed free if it isnt.. My time is better spent doing what Im good at rather than jumping in blindly hoping I get it right while taking the chance of messing up a $30+K truck.

 

Edge,

There are some real good gear change write-ups on the web. I did my 2wd and it took me 12 hours (full Saturday), some of that time was chasing down tools and eating. The $500 I saved probably wasn't worth my time, but I didn't have the extra cash laying around and had extra time and most of the tools. It's not that bad of a job. I purchased Ford racing gears, and the pinion shimmed the same as the original one. I needed to swap the ring shims between sides to get the right backlash.

The biggest pain was torquing the pinion nut. It took something like 400 ft/lbs of torque to crush the crush sleeve, and you are targeting a few inch/lbs of bearing pre-load. It's a bear to do while laying on the floor! Basically - Grunt and check, grunt and check, ... seemed like forever. Get it wrong, and you have to start over.

Programming the computer is the easy part! $75 at Ford dealer, or buy a tuner. I bought the tuner - more fun! Good Luck!

 

OK back when I posted this I forgot to include the little detail that I have two (father and son) ASE Master Certified techs living less than a mile from me with a combined career of around 40 years in a dealership... so let me re-phrase: If I buy the parts and have my master certified mechanic friend install them dirt cheap, would it hurt my truck driving 35 miles to the closest Ford dealer for a re-program. These guys have a couple different programmers I've seen them use but just in case they can't do it I dont want to screw something up by driving it with the wrong brain in the PCM.

 

no it will hurt nothing driving with diff ring and pinion for a few miles, your tranny shift pionts might be alittle weird and your speedo will be off but other than that it should be fine