Rental RAM 1500 with 5.7 and 3:92 gears

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Deepc6

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While my truck was being fixed the dealer gave me a RAM 1500 with 5.7 and 3:92 gears. I drove it in NYC traffic, highway etc the gas mileage was comparable to my 5.7 with 3:21. How involved is it to swap the front differential? I’ve done many of my RWD cars but never a truck.
 
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Wild one

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After you remove the axles there's 4 bolts on the front driveshaft and 7 bolts on the diff itself,4 you can get at with impact gun,a long extension and swivel socket,3 that you'll have to wrench out on the top of the diff.The 3 on the top will make you curse the engineer that decided to put them there and Loctite them in,lol. The actuator just unplugs and can stay attached to the diff. I've swapped my 14's front diff a couple times now,and it's a job you can easily do on your driveway with a floorjack,nice if you have a hand helping to install the new diff,but not impossible to do by yourself.
 

69GWC

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Good info thanks.
All goes well I will switch mine out next year as well.
 

huntergreen

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If you have 4wd, you need to both.
 

Niteboss

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After you remove the axles there's 4 bolts on the front driveshaft and 7 bolts on the diff itself,4 you can get at with impact gun,a long extension and swivel socket,3 that you'll have to wrench out on the top of the diff.The 3 on the top will make you curse the engineer that decided to put them there and Loctite them in,lol. The actuator just unplugs and can stay attached to the diff. I've swapped my 14's front diff a couple times now,and it's a job you can easily do on your driveway with a floorjack,nice if you have a hand helping to install the new diff,but not impossible to do by yourself.

Really? its really that simple? Minus the elbow grease. From the posts I read here,they make it sound like a job only a meachic or dealer could do.

Thanks for the heads up. Makes the swap for me that much more
Doable.
 
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Deepc6

Deepc6

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Thank you for the response. For some reason when I initially looked up how to do it most people said I needed to replace the whole housing for the front, if that was the case it would be a tough call. It sounds simple enough, I will have to find some time to get this done. Plus I want new differential covers down there.
 
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Wild one

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Thank you for the response. For some reason when I initially looked up how to do it most people said I needed to replace the whole housing for the front, if that was the case it would be a tough call. It sounds simple enough, I will have to find some time to get this done. Plus I want new differential covers down there.

That's just a how to on swapping the housing itself,lol. If you go looking for a front diff,make sure you get the later ZF diff,the earlier 8.25AAM diff is way more difficult to install,it needs the front driveshaft/a drivers side motor mount swap etc.
After you've pulled out your original,it's a piece of cake putting the replacement back in if you have a helper.I've done mine by myself twice now using a floorjack on my driveway,and it can be a bit of an ordeal running the floorjack with your leg,while you guide it back up into place,if you're a muscle bound guy you might be able to do it by hand,as the diff weigh's roughly 80lbs,me i'm to old to do it that way,lol.
Forgot to add my truck has long tubes,and it's still an easy swap,although they do make it tougher to get at the top 3 bolts.If you have stock manifolds,the top 3 bolts are a lot easier to get at.
 
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WiSH2oo0

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Yep, just like Wild explained the 3 top bolts with loctite is a pain in the butt. If you plan on lifting your truck anytime soon that would be the time to do it.
 
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SRR007

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If you are thinking about the 3:92 just a little more and go with the 4:10 works real nice...
 

Kenneth1977

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I still have not got any good info as to why you cant change the gears out only that something is welded and i have searched , by looking at the front assembly everything unbolts and there are replacement parts for the entire front axle.
 

69GWC

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The ring gear is welded to the carrier from what I was told.
 

JPT

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The ring gear is welded to the carrier from what I was told.

Wow... That would take some serious skill to weld (guessing a robot) with the two different types of metal...
 
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