Front axle off set to passenger side

[Bextreme04]

It’s an 87 front axle, 3.42 gears supposedly is what the truck came with factory. I’ve counted the bolts before I bet it’s a 10 bolt. I don’t know 100% if the front and rear gear ratios are the same tho… the rear end has been swapped before(internals not the whole axle)

You can tell the gear ratio when you pull the cover to change the fluid. It will have a stamping on the side of the ring gear that says something like 10 34 or 10 41. If you divide the big number by the small number you will get your gear ratio. You can also tell by lifting up the axle and turn the driveshaft while counting the number of times it takes to turn one wheel a full rotation. If its 3.42 gears it should take ~3 1/2 turns to make the tire do one rotation.

 

[iamtherealJayy]

If they aren’t the same ratio, am I in big trouble?

 

[Redfish]

If they aren’t the same ratio, am I in big trouble?

Not if you leave it in 2WD. In 4WD on hard, dry ground you will have issues. In 4WD on pavement you may break something, at best you are going to wear tires like mad and it will be difficult to steer.

If you discover you have different ratios it should have shown itself before now. Just make sure you don't use 4WD until you do have matched ratios.

 

[iamtherealJayy]

I’ve used 4wd once in the whole time I’ve had the truck, winter of 2020 after a snow I couldn’t take off in 2wd so I just stuck in 4hi to take off and once I shifted to second I pulled it back into 2hi. I’m pretty sure hubs were unlocked but honestly can’t remember. I’m not a huge off-road person since I really can’t beat on this truck lol
Edit: I feel like the truck does have really high gearing though, in first I can get to about 20 if I go near 3k rpm, second I can get to almost 55 if I push it to 3k and then in third I can go 70 at just over 2000 rpms. I don’t know what the actual limit is for engine speed but at 3k it’s screaming. I’ve had the k10 tachometer showing 4K on a rev but this 87 tbi engine I’m scared to go above 3000.
Edit2: and shifting at 3k is rough it’s like throw you forward and then throw you back when you shift. I’m thinking about un bolting my slave cylinder and tried to reverse bleed some bubbles out by pumping the slave by hand under the truck since it doesn’t feel as good as I want it to, the last few times I’ve drove the truck I don’t feel like I have all the pedal travel I should have. And as @AuroraGirl mentioned I have return springs on my throttle body(I removed the shorter fat spring but I left the long skinny one just because I don’t know why) and my throttle has always been kinda stiff, like when I drove dads 97 6.5 Detroit I could ease into the throttle as I let off the clutch and it went fine but in my tbi truck if you try to ease into the throttle it’s hard and when you get it to move it shoots up to 1500 and then you just kinda pump it to take off. It’s rather annoying but I don’t have anything else to compare to, so no idea what’s normal and what’s not unless I ask on here.

 

[iamtherealJayy]

@Bextreme04 the front is a 10 bolt cover and rear is 14,

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But I still don’t know the gear size, I see 8.5” and 9.5” atleast
My cover looks more like the 8.5” in my opinion with the full hole being to the right of the bulge.

 

[AuroraGirl]

@Bextreme04 the front is a 10 bolt cover and rear is 14,

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But I still don’t know the gear size, I see 8.5” and 9.5” atleast
My cover looks more like the 8.5” in my opinion with the full hole being to the right of the bulge.

nice your driveshaft slapped your bed crossmember in the past too
also your u bolts dont look squared to the axle
and i mentioned it before but the bolts look narrower than what the u bolt plate is expecting to see are they the right plates? Bolts?

 

[AuroraGirl]

@Bextreme04 the front is a 10 bolt cover and rear is 14,

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But I still don’t know the gear size, I see 8.5” and 9.5” atleast
My cover looks more like the 8.5” in my opinion with the full hole being to the right of the bulge.

9.5 14 bolt semi float, unless im mistaken 8.5( 8.875″ apparently as well?) is the 10 bolt, 14 bolt full float is 10.5 or whatever.

 

[AuroraGirl]

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this is 1978 and dana 44. See those bolts? i have a feeling your bolts should be closer to that, but I dont have anything I could say this is right

 

[iamtherealJayy]

My ubolts weren’t even visible in those photos? And what makes you think the driveshaft slapped the bed? The rear end isn’t a full floater I assume semi float tho since it’s 3/4 ton truck. Alrigjt I take it back 1 count em one. ubolt is visible. No I assume they’ve been replaced since there were lift blocks in the front but the plates are original and the ubolts expand when you take it out of the plate, I had to squeeze each threaded section together to slide it through the plate.

 

[AuroraGirl]

My ubolts weren’t even visible in those photos? And what makes you think the driveshaft slapped the bed? The rear end isn’t a full floater I assume semi float tho since it’s 3/4 ton truck. Alrigjt I take it back 1 count em one. ubolt is visible. No I assume they’ve been replaced since there were lift blocks in the front but the plates are original and the ubolts expand when you take it out of the plate, I had to squeeze each threaded section together to slide it through the plate.

Hmmm... and you have the same center hemispherical dent in the bottonm of the bed crossmember. its not a bad thing its just the truck was likely loaded down and the mounts were squishy old rubber and someone got down on it, it would be from torque deflection. a spring could have been broken or tired too
unless they dent them factory and mine was enlarged for reasons lol

 

[AuroraGirl]

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it also looks wave like its been fatiguing side-to-side or was hit 90 degrees on or something.

 

[AuroraGirl]

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Heres mine

 

[iamtherealJayy]

The clean spot on diff cover is from removing the old one I think lol it wasn’t there until I changed the tie rod because I thought that the tie rod was hitting. If your theory of the ubolts is some what feasible than wouldn’t that have the axle shifted to drivers side? Or am I still just too tired to process math? I just woke up

 

[AuroraGirl]

The clean spot on diff cover is from removing the old one I think lol it wasn’t there until I changed the tie rod because I thought that the tie rod was hitting. If your theory of the ubolts is some what feasible than wouldn’t that have the axle shifted to drivers side? Or am I still just too tired to process math? I just woke up

it looks like its walked to both sides on that. if its true, the alignment probably is favoring one side maybe Idk

 

[Grit dog]

The clean spot on diff cover is from removing the old one I think lol it wasn’t there until I changed the tie rod because I thought that the tie rod was hitting. If your theory of the ubolts is some what feasible than wouldn’t that have the axle shifted to drivers side? Or am I still just too tired to process math? I just woke up

You’re correct. And I’d presume you would have seen if they were actually racked.