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I finallly got my gears done.

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BlueKnight

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Took awhile but today the gears are done. Since I have a corp 10 bolt they guy who did my gears said a detroit true trac would be the way to go.He said I bust and axle before busting the true trac. Everyone said I had a dana 44. He ven ordered gears for it as a dana 44 sight unseen.but it is a 10 bolt and according to him 10 bolts are really weak. Is this true? Do you really need a really strong front end? Isn't the majority of the wear and tear in the rear? what can you do to make it stronger?



<font color=purple>79' K-5 396cid 600hp, TH350, NP203</font color=purple>
http://79blueknight.homepage.com
 
I am not sure if you are being facetious or not, but yeah, 10-bolts are like paper. I have never, ever heard of a Detroit Locker breaking, but I know nothing of True-Tracs, so they might be just fine. I am only familiar with the "C" ones. Still, saying that you'll break an axle before you break the locker isn't saying much if you have 10-bolts. I wasn't sure about this myself, but enough guys on here (and the local 4x4 guy, who really knows his stuff) said they suck, and that's enough for me. I am going to take it easy until I have enough for a 14-bolt rear and a Dana 60 front (and the 16" wheels and tires), but I am sure I'll snap a few in the meantime. I am not looking forward to it.

Here is a great site about beefing up 10-bolts. http://www.4x4review.com/products/drive_train/ordaxles.asp I thought about this, but if it only gives you as much strength as a 12-bolt it hardly seems worth it. Call me nutty, but an axle snap in the middle of the desert is not my idea of a good time.
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I know I read somewhere in some 4x mag that 10 bolt fronts weren't that much weaker than a d44. Now I'm not saying it's true, but it's what I read. But it depends on how you abuse your truck too. I think it was the axle shafts that were slightly weaker than the d44....I don't know...just throwing in my two wooden pennies.

<font color=red>MICHIGAN BLAZER
<font color=green>89 Fullsize Blazer
87 Cherokee
65 IH Scout
 
When comparing Dana 44's versus 10-bolts, there really isn't that much difference. The earlier 10-bolts (around pre-'88 or so) have slightly weaker axle shafts.
I have 10-bolts front and rear in my '90 and have had good luck since I beefed them up. They have 4.10 gears with a Detroit TruTrac in the rear and an Eaton Posi in front. The rear has has alloy 30 spline axle shafts and a LPW bearing support cover, and I have ORD's chromoly front shafts ordered. I run 35x12.50 tires and the truck is almost only used for trailriding, so it gets used hard at least once per month. I have not had any problems with the rear 10-bolt (knock on wood) since the modifications, though the factory Gov-Lok exploded after the truck was stolen and beat on. I am very happy with the TruTrac and it should hold up just as well as the Locker.
I have broken two front axle u-joints (one on each side) since running the 35's, but both failures were pretty much due to the u-joint clips working loose and allowing the cups to come out of the yokes. In the front application, a 10-bolt should hold up reasonably well unless you are running really big tires or abuse the truck really hard. The TruTrac and aftermarket gears will help beef it up.
 
I'd generally say that you don't need a D60 for general wheeling. Look at BigBurb, he's running 12" lift and 38's, used to be 44" boggers on a 10 bolt. I had one in the front of my blazer and tuff trucked it for a season, no damage and I was jumping it high and hard. I'd see how yours holds up. The D60 has some drawbacks though, including weight and it puts you at a disadvantage on jumps, and mud according to most of the mud bog gurus I've talked with. But I see you're supposedly running 600 horsepower, that might throw a wrench into the 10 bolt/D44 plan...

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Durant, Ok
'79 Blazer in progress
 
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