Thinking of a re-gear to 4.56...

[RamRod]

So as I have mentioned before I just moved to a new part of the country, went from the flat land prairies with long stretches of highway & very little stop and go traffic. To now living to the mountains and rolling hills of the PNW with tonnes of stop and go.

Even though I have a 5.3L with Supercharger, I feel like I could benifit from going from the stock 4.10's to 4.56's if I am going to continue to run 37's in this neck of the woods.

What are some things that I should take into consideration before making this swap? Is it a matter of taking the truck into a pro and get a shop to do the re-gear in order to get everything set up right (backlash, etc.)? is it something that I could consider doing myself? What sort of down time should I expect.

Any help would be great (trying to convince myself that this can still be a practical truck where I moved to)

Cheers!!!!

 

[cgalpha08]

OK so I literally just did this. For the front I got lucky and just swapped in an already 4.56 geared and locked cast iron diff.

For the rear, with a lot of help from CJ (OK he did most of the work) we did it in about 8 hours. Now some of that was due to the carrier bearings being bad (unexpected) and putting new pinion bearings on and getting new axle seals.

You are going to need a press to get the pinion bearing on/off. The pain comes in if the spacer that goes between the pinion bearing and the gear is wrong and you have to take it on and off, very time consuming.

Setting the backlash and preload is not hard, you just have to have the right gauges.

My rear is unlocked (still is) but I have beard it is harder to do it with one that has a locker.


Put it to you this way. I would do it myself again if I had to. I didn't think it was that bad of a job and would tackle it again. If your going for speed and getting it done, taking it to a pro who does it every day could be advantageous.

 

[cgalpha08]

Btw I would get a full rebuild kit just in case you need to replace something.
I should also say we did mine while it was still on the truck....meaning we layed on the garage floor. It's a lot easier to do it with the axle out of the truck.

 

[CaseyS]

At some point in the future I'll have a set of 4.56 gears to offer. I'm swapping to 4.10 in mine. Still debating whether I attempt this myself or not.

 

[RamRod]

At some point in the future I'll have a set of 4.56 gears to offer. I'm swapping to 4.10 in mine. Still debating whether I attempt this myself or not.

Keep me in mind.... I am going to have to get a shop to do this ... no access to a press

 

[humvee]

I know I'm late to the party, and whether you've already done something about this, but I came across the thread and have some input. comparing a stock Alpha to my 5.3 on 4.56, I absolutely love it.
Don't know how well the i5 4.56 will handle your style of offroading - rock crawling, but on the dunes, its a beast.

Let me know if you need specific details, I'd be happy to test some things out for you.
I can imagine with 37s, you're slightly more underpowered than you'd like to be.

 

[Peep]

OK you have confused me again. I though all you had to do was change the transfer case, in my case to go from non Adventure to Adventure 4.01. Now I have to change the gears in both diff's also????

 

[GreatDaneHummer]

You are speaking of two different things here Peep. There are two different ratio's for the transfer case. 2.xx to 1 and 4 to 1 if I remember correct. What the other gentlemen are speaking of above are your front and rear axle ring / pinion ratio. You can change your transfer case out without doing anything to your ring / pinion ratio and vise verse. The I-5 came with 4.56 ring / pinion ratio while the 5.3 V8 came with 4.10 ring / pinion ratio. To increase performance and correct for larger tire sizes many 5.3 V8 owners change from the 4.10 ring / pinion ratio to the 4.56. Hope this helps?

 

[Peep]

:thumbs: