changing gears in the rear end

[88orangeandblack]

i have a 7.5 rear end with 3.73 gears is there any way i could uprade to a bigger rear end off another ford without burning my transfer case up.my buddy told me if i go switching(MISMATCHING) gears i could possibly burn it up.i cant have a 3.73 front end and a 8.8 rear?

 

[atvkid4eva]

the easiert thing to do is swap in an 8.8 rear end from a ford explorer..if you want to keep your 3.73 gears up front just find an 8.8 that has 3.73 stock in it and youll be fine...i believe the code for the 3.73 is H4 on an explorer and its located on the drivers side door jam..there is a nice write up in the tech library about which 8.8s have which gears and which ones come stock with l/s..you can also just look on the pumpkin tag on the rear diff to determine what gears it has..it will either say 373 or 3l73 the one with the 'l' has l/s...hope this helps.

 

[88orangeandblack]

perfect thanks man

 

[Toms01PSD]

The easiest thing is swapping an Explorer rear end in? I'll have to disagree with that. Swapping in another RANGER rear end is easier. You will have to cut off the spring perches and shock mounts on the Explorer axle and re-weld them on to work with a Ranger. The Ranger 8.8 is a bolt-in swap.

As for "burning" it up, 7.5 and 8.8 refer to the size of the ring gear in the rear axle. 3.73's refers to the gear ratio of that axle. If you have a 7.5 rear axle with 3.73's, all you need to do is find a 8.8 with 3.73's in it.

 

[88orangeandblack]

will a 2wd with 3.73 gears in it work off a ranger

 

[Mac]

Not a problem, no difference. Any 4.0L Ranger will have the 8.8.
Dave

 

[atvkid4eva]

yeah if you can find a ranger rear then get that its a straight swap..i know that around here the explorer 8.8s are dime a dozen and there are tons at local junkyards...yeah i did forget to tell you that you would have to mod the spring perches so they are spring over and not spring under...not to hard to do if you have the right tools.. if you search there are million threads on this mod..good luck