I'm not so sure the aftermarket carriers have the ring gear mount flange in a different position than the factory. Otherwise the gears wouldn't fit a factory carrier. I've only seen one or two manufactuers note that certain ratios they carry (usually the real low ones, 5.xx for Jeeps) won't fit factory carriers, but I don't mess with many gear changes like Randy has. One point Randy made really stands out: there's more than one way to make the same ratio, and that explains an aftermarket company having a different "break point" than the factory, like the example he gave. On January 16, 2005 Randy Guynn wrote (and I edited down further): > If you already ''know it all;'' on Model 20 rear ends,then don't bother > reading this as you could not possibly learn anything from it. If you > are teachable you might just learn why there is so much confusion over > model 20 gear/carrier swaps. > > Tom Bunsey, you are right. But also the Aftermarket is right Where the > problem comes from is Factory parts and Aftermarket parts. Just because > a certain gar ratio in Factory gears fits in Factory carriers does not > mean that every aftermarket gear, or carrier will affect the same swaps. > > You have to understand that the aftermarket carriers that are advertised > as 3.08 and up gears really do fit the gears advertised.Just because a > gear ratio is say, 3.08 does not mean that every manufacturer arrives at > the 3.08 in the same way. > > Example a 3.08 AMC Factory gear is a 13/40 count but a Precision > aftermarket 3.08 gear is 14/43 count. > > One thing that is 100% constant in all rear end applications is that the > Pinion gear is always located in the exact same place in the housing. > So, with that in mind, you can easily see that when the number of teeth > on a Pinion gear increases, the gear gets bigger in diameter. Since the > centerline of the pinion never changes, then it stands to reason that > the Ring gear gets Thinner as the Pinion gear gets bigger. The reason > there is more than one carrier is because they moved the Ring Gear > Mounting Flange on the 2.73 and 2.56 model carriers because the pinion > had grown so large that the ring gear was too thin for strength needed. > So, they move the flange.and the ring gear can then gain more width and > be strong enough to not easily break. ============================================================= Posted by wixList Archiver -- http://www.amxfiles.com/wixlist