Broken gears in axle on 1990 bronco 2

TheBlueBroncinator

New Member
Joined
Oct 25, 2010
Location
South Jordan Utah
Just went to moab this last weekend and climbing up a hill heard a loud pop in the rear end. Disconnected rear driveshaft to get it off the trail. Got home and opened up the rear diff. Some teeth are missing on the large verticle gear (about 5). I have been debating on getting new gears to help turn my 32" tires but didnt think i could afford it. What is an easy affordable way to fix my problem?
1. I have though about just going to the junkyard and pulling some gears out of another vehicle but i don't know what gears i have in there. Do i just need to count the teeth? cant find a tag on the diff.
2. Replace my 7.5 rear axle with an 8.8, but what axle would work well to replace my front dana 35 twin i beam? And would i need to replace gears in front also?
3. should i just take it in to sixstates or teraflex and get raped on getting them replaced..
Any thoughts or ideas are welcome! Thanks.
 
sounds like you broke teeth off the ring gear. This needs to be replaced. Ring gear and pinion gears should be kept as a set, no replacing one withotu the other. The simplest would be to grab a junkyard axle with the same ratio (ring gear teeth:pinion gear teeth) as what you have, and swap the entire axle. Once you start pulling gears, you shoudl invest in bearings, and then setup the gears. Setup is pretty complex/time consuming/specialty tool intensive...best left to someone who doenst need to post the above questions.

Of course, if you arent happy with your ratio and need different for you bigger tires, you'll have to regear both front and rear axle.
 
I am not happy with my gear ratio that i have right now, and ya it was the teeth on the ring gear. So I will just head to the junkyard and find an axle with a more appealing gear ratio for the rear. Then the only problem will be finding a front axle that will swap my twin I beam that has the same gear ratio as the rear that i get.
 
TheBlueBroncinator said:
I am not happy with my gear ratio that i have right now, and ya it was the teeth on the ring gear. So I will just head to the junkyard and find an axle with a more appealing gear ratio for the rear. Then the only problem will be finding a front axle that will swap my twin I beam that has the same gear ratio as the rear that i get.
Click to expand...


Find a doner truck with straight axles...
 
Yeah, this might be a good time to come up with an overall plan for the vehicle.

On one hand, you can just go get a junkyard rear that's more or less the same as what you have and swap it in.

On the other, you can try to upgrade the rear... by getting an 8.8 like you said, and/or by changing the ratio. Problem then is finding a third to go in the front that's the same ratio as your new rear... or swap the whole TTB assembly out for a straight axle like Jeff said. Might be good to look for a TTB explorer, something from the early 90s. I think they had both the D35 and an 8.8, often with 4.10 gears. Does the B2 have a 5 on 4.5 bolt pattern? I don't recall.

Or you could park it and buy something else.

Ford diffs usually have a tag under one of the ring gear bolts that will say something like "3 55 8 8", which means it's a 3.55 geared 8.8, etc.

Might also check the classifieds at dezertrangers. They'd be more likely to have something to swap into a B2 and to be somewhat local to you.
 
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