Stepping up to 4.88's

[TOY350]

Pulled my thirds yesterday with the help of Curtis (CJF) and will be shipping them up to JT's in Washington. The rear was a piece of cake, much easier with a full float then my previous semi-floating 40 & 60 experiences. I had Curtis pull the whole driver side front and I did the passenger, easy job since I had been in there for a rebuild not that long ago. 4.88's although "so last year" should be fine with my 33's and should help my low range while tackling Rubithon this year.

My semi-technical question is can I ship these with the E-lockers still attached or do they need to be removed from the carrier housings? I wasn't planning on removing them if I didn't have to. I want to pack them up today and ship them out in the morning and can't get a hold of JT's until Monday.

Thanks,

Garett
TOY350

A big thanks to Curtis for the help as well.

[WarDamnEagle]

If you take a look at Zuk's website, he recommends shipping the whole third in a Wal Mart sourced plastic tote. I don't think you need to remove the elocker.

Boxing up the 3rds

[TOY350]

Thanks for the link WDE, the tote is what I will look to do on the rear third. I don't think I need to pull the locker actuators but just want to make sure.

[landtank]

According to the FSM the lockers should be engaged prior to this sort of servicing! I'd call ahead and ask as you can just plug them into the harness and activate them if need be prior to shipping.

[Nay]

Originally Posted by TOY350

4.88's although "so last year" should be fine with my 33's and should help my low range while tackling Rubithon this year.

4.88's and 33's? 100% 2008, at least until they encourage you to move up to 35's

[Bear80]

Pull both e-locker motors off. All I left on mine when it went to ZUK was the front clutch and fork. There is nothing you need to leave on the rear 3rd. Also I would recommend that you double up the wal-mart totes for the rear 3rd. When mine came back the diff was nearly about to fall out of the bottom. The front was fine in just one tote.

[TOY350]

Rick- I had both lockers locked when I pulled them as per the FSM, as long as they stay locked when keyed off and the neg battery cable gets disconnected. The shift forks appear to move towards and away from the side gear and both forks are currently close to the side gear.

Nay- I guess the 33 4.88 ratio is close to the 35 5.29 so I can still run with the "in" crowd

Bear- I have them packed up right now with everything on them still, I guess it's just costing me more money for weight as long as JT's doesn't mind them being on there. The front tote weighs in at 72 lbs. and the rear one at 90 lbs., spending another $6 on the rear might not be a bad idea. Thanks.

[CJF]

Originally Posted by TOY350

Rick- I had both lockers locked when I pulled them as per the FSM, as long as they stay locked when keyed off and the neg battery cable gets disconnected. The shift forks appear to move towards and away from the side gear and both forks are currently close to the side gear.

They were definitely locked.

TOY, I'm hoping I can help as well with the install, so we can do the FSM recommended lock/unlock test before shoving them back in the axle housings. That's got to be cool to watch.

Cheers,

Curtis

[TOY350]

Results of the install:

Everything went fairly smooth. My front end was fine since I had rebuilt it not too long ago. I rebuilt the rear hubs and they definitely needed it. I would put this as a mandatory service at 120K if not at 90K. The grease was old and dirty and the driver side had mixed with gear oil and left the bearings only lighted lubed. The bearings themselves were still in good condition at 124K but I replaced them anyway along with all new seals. The overall condition of the rear hubs and bearings was on par with what others had posted on theirs. Changed out rear pads while I was there too as they were getting pretty thin. The front pinion flange was replaced because mine was grooved where the seals rides. I opted for the solid pinion spacers instead of crush sleeves in case I ever have to mess with the flanges or seals there I won't have to worry about the preload with a crush sleeve. Went with synthetic gear oil as well to be put in after the 500 mile break in period, I was on the fence with this one but not only did JT's recommend it whether I bought it from them or not so did my friend who owns a gear shop down in San Diego. Maybe the gear guys are just anal like we are about our 80's

Have almost 400 miles on them now and have to say it has made a huge difference. Acceleration is back to "good" as far as an 80 goes without a S/C, I no longer have the PWR button engaged. It pulls the hills at 70 with the cruise on no problem as before it would downshift and kick up to 4500 RPM or so. My RPM is 2750 at 70 mph which is fine with me since I don't run the highway much, mostly around town and in the hills.

I installed Marks speedo adapter from Slee and this was an easy 1/2 install. Fully plug and play. I took GPS readings at 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 85, 90 & 95 on the speedo and averaged them out to get my ratio for the box. I came out with .8766 and used the .8767 position on the adapter. This is for 4.88's with 285/75/16 Toyo MT's AND Slee's speedo correction gear still installed at the trasfer case.

First tank of gas netted my about 11.5 mpg which is just above my average. I will be tracking this as I don't have to put my foot into as much I think I should average 1-2 mpg better than before.

Glad I finally pulled the trigger on this one, it was well worth it. Overall cost for me pulling/installing, having them built, shipping, all new bearings at the diffs, full set of rear bearings, pinion spacers, front flange and 7 qts. of synthetic gear oil was $1500.

Garett

[Bear80]

Good to hear it's working well. JT's just had to come out with that soild spacer AFTER I got my diffs done, always my luck. I have been thinking about pulling the diffs just to add the new spacers.

[Skillet]

Nice writeup Garett.

I am just getting used to mine.

So far, me likey.

Cannot decide if I am going to 35's yet so I am going to hold off on the speedo deal.

[TOY350]

Jeb- Mark's adapter let's you adjust the ratio at any time by going into the box and changing the switch positions. It also has 2 settings if you run 2 sets of tires you can set it up for both and flip the switch to the right ratio. If it's something you want to do once you find the tire size you want then I wouldn't wait since changing the settings is so easy.