97 1500 ram rear differential broke :(

[Hoots]

Hey guys i have a 97 Dodge ram 1500 4x4 and my rear differential gave out and ate its case on the way out so now im stuck with getting a whole new rear differential. Whats my best options looking to fix this. The truck is lifted 6-9 inches not 100% sure but its also on 35" tires and there wide tires and 15.5" rims if im not mistaken. also i bought it used so not sure if my rear differential has been re geared will know tonight finish taking it apart. My question lies with what to do...

1) buy another 3.55 rear differential (this is what the Vin said i had)
2) go to pick a part and buy the housing and then buy all upgraded gears?
a) if i do this whats the best gearing to fit its need? 3.9, 4.10?

i know ill need to match the front and etc.. but whats the best deal to give my truck what it needs. purely a daily driver, small off road dirt roads and small stuff.. don't like to break something that's not set up for off road. I do pull a mobile kitchen some times nothing huge and a small trailer like 1/2 every other month or so if that. So any help in getting this done would be great.

 

[SmokedRam]

If I were you, I'd find me another used diff and regear the whole truck to 4.56...at the bare minimum 4.10's...3.92's wouldn't make much a diff over the stock 3.55 and not worth the money to upgrade to.

 

[smiley]

I also would regear 3.55 and 35's equals weak off the line and doing any type of truck work.


$miley

 

[Hoots]

So your saying the 3.55 is not gonna be good at all on my truck? Here is a picture of my truck sitting on the street, not like its much help for this topic but you can see the tires and the lift. i think im gonna chance my luck and look for a case for it at the junk yard and hope that's the best route

 

[mike2me]

If you stick with stock and re-gear your best route will be to look around locally (craigslist/ask around at an off road shop over a junkyard) and try to find a pair of used axles that are already geared lower. While selection and price is different everywhere I have seen PAIRS of dodge axles that were geared lower on cl and they generally cost less than the gears for one axle (most recently a set of 1/2 tons w/ 4.10s for $170)

 

[Hoots]

i wish that was the case for southern cali, but almost all pick a parts and junk yards are out even auto repair shops 12 of them couldnt even find me a whole rear differential in 3.55 or any other gear ratio for that matter but i found a yard in Mississippi thats i got a 3.55 for 300. plus shipping but i think ill just use that for getting the truck moving and then in a month ill re gear to 4.10.

 

[smiley]

Hey in case you don't know check car-part.com great way to track things down fast. I just used it to get a new front carrier differential assembly for my Durango that has the wrong gears in front. 77 bucks out the door.


$miley

 

[Hoots]

i wish you would have posted that yesterday

 

[Nikolai553]

My recent experience (and on going) with getting my differentials changed is pretty simple. Either you buy the quality parts you want with non-inflated prices and install them yourself or you have a shop slap their low quality parts in at inflated quality prices...

my 02