rear end advice needed

[vw62rag]

hello, well my wife brought the blazer home today makin all kindsa noise from the rearend so i took the dif. cover off to inspect it and i found chuncks of metal (teeth from the pinion gear) layin on the bottom, so i take it the ring and pinion are shot. from what i know the rearend is totally stock 10 bolt and i new it would give up sooner or later. iv never really messed with a rearend before so any help would be greatly appreciated. i looked for numbers on the gear and this is what i found ( 2 GM 1235126 13 40 12 84) so i need some advice? what should i do now? put in a locker? change the gears? im running 36 inch tires and a 700r4 trany and a 308 TC. what gears would be right for my set up? im gona leave this rearend in and jus fix it. i dont wana put a 14 bolt in (yet) please help
THANKS in advance!!!!

 

[mciahpv]

Depends on how you use your rig and how much you want to spend. With 36" tires, you probably want a taller gear than stock (maybe like a 4.56). But realize that you'll also then need to regear your front to match, which may be more money than you want to spend.

As far as a locker, again it depends on how hard and how often you wheel. (and how big your budget is) If you spend a lot of time in the thick stuff and have decent funds, go for the locker. (Although it might be money well spent to just go ahead with a 60 or 14 bolt at that point) If you do mostly DD/mall crawler duty and/or have limited funds, stick with the open diff. Were you happy with the way it performed prior to breakage? If you were, maybe you don't need to upgrade.

I've probably offered more questions than answers, but something to think about...

 

[K5Steve]

Well,you have 3.08 gears now which suck!I would replace with 4.56's or around there.I just rebuilt my 10 bolt with some 30 spline Superior axles for 100 bucks a piece at Summit and stuck in an Eaton posi.I don't do heavy offroading,just mild trails and stuff for fun so going to a 14 bolt wasn't needed.This set up works great.

 

[vw62rag]

thanks for the help guys!! well mine is a daily driver for sure but i dont hesitate to jump in some mud and be a little rough on it if the occasion arises, and some light trails, hills ect... heres one exsample..( http://media.putfile.com/GMC-jimmy ) so i should get some 4.56 gears? is that what will work good for my set up? and a locker? (and id get the front to match also) steve you were sayin you replaced the axles.....do i have to do that also? i mean there not broke

 

[colbystephens]

seems to me that it would be alot cheaper and easier to find another entire axle assembly with the gear ratio you want and just swap it in. it's a matter of about 12 bolts. just my .02.

colbystephens.