need new gear advice

[XHitman396]

in the past i had no idea on the gears of my stock 87 wit da 208 and 10 bolts, but when i was under there changing the u-joints, there was this little metal disc that says it was re-geared to 261 gears on the X-fer case.. from what i hear this sucks cuz u need a big herd of horses under the herd to power these sufficiently with 35's (in the future). first question: can a stock 350 w/ np208 t-case with 261 gears and stock 10 bolts power 35s in mud, no rocks. and two: how much/hard would it be to switch these out to lower gears, what would you suggest, daily driver, how much would new gears be if i installed em, if i had someone else install them?? thanks in advance...

 

[MNorby]

I think what you are looking at is the low range ratio of the t-case witch is 2.6:1 on a NP208. Chekc the diff convers for a tag or pull the cover and on teh ring gear is 2 numbers, divide the first by the second and you will get your ratio. Gears swaps are someone entailing but more or less time consumming and trial and error. I found it easier/ cheaper to upgrade to 3/4 ton axles and got 4.10s that way and alot more stegth

 

[8_YOUR_H2]

That plate on the tcase shows the gearing of the low side in the tcase not in the axles. You dont want to mess with changing the gears in a tcase. WMS will go 3:1 in a 203 for $1000 and they are coming out with 3:1 in a 205 that will run $700 or so.

As for the gears in the axles, this is what I did. I took the axles out of the truck and stripped then down. I bought the gears and install kit then took it to the cheapest place in town. They charged me $200 in labor for a D44 and $90 in labor for a 14FF. So the gears were $160, install kit $100 or so, then add in labor.

They wanted $400 labor if I pulled the truck in and they did the gears with the axles on the truck.

 

[Texas84K5]

I just did a gear change and I believe that the largest ratio you can go to on the stock axle is a 4.10. I would recommend at least a 4.10 or greater. I would like more off the line strength (btw I had a 350 built for it and I don't have any of the smog or cats on it)