Gear upgrade from 2.73- Do I need a new carrier too?

[AHSOM50]

Hi- Was looking on ebay at gears...
Currently my 89 5.0 has the factory 2.73 w/ Traction lock rear in it- I want to upgrade, I'm planning on running 3.31s or 3.55s. but am not sure I need a new carrier as well.

Do you need a new carrier when you step up in size that much? I know with some of the (cough cough) chevy differential stuff I have worked with in the past, 2.xx and 3.xx and 4.xx gears required different sized carriers or a ring gear spacer.

Is the ford 8.8 the same, or is it the same carrier for all gears?

Thanks-
Ben

 

[Beasly B]

It's the same carrier for all gears, the least I would do would be 3.55s the 3.73s are great for these cars.

 

[Tonys96Cobra]

No new carrier needes, do the 3.55 if you drive it everyday, 3.73 if not...assuming you have a T5

 

[JBeezy53]

Same carrier. I think its different once up step up to high 4s or into the 5s. I have 3.55s in my car and I love them. Its a T5.

 

[FoxRod87]

I have 4.30s and there great all around, town or highway.

 

[Nasty Nate]

I have an auto, what gears should I go with, and what is currently in my 8.8?

 

[Euphoric306]

autos (i believe) were 3.08 standard, with optional 3.27

go with teh 4.10's for an auto

 

[PuterAmI]

Not knowing how many miles are on the rear, you may also want to rebuild the Trak-Lok.

 

[Nasty Nate]

What tooth speedo gear would I change to if I got the 4.10's?

How much will this change my gas ecconomy? i'm getting pretty dang good gas milage right now.

 

[timewarped1972]

depends on the year tranny........some of them have gears in the transmission to support swapping to 4.10's and some do not...........i can't remeber which year was what but i know the versatile speedo drive gear in the tranny is the 7 tooth one..wait you said you have an aod........that might be diff than a t-5.......not sure.......but there is a thing with certain years and what speedo drive gear is in the tranny for weather you can use a speedo gear for 4.10's

edit- according to the catalog here, 84 to 89 aod's use a 23 tooth speedo gear.......for 4.10

90 to 93 have a drive gear in the tranny that only accomodates up to a 3.55 rear gear.......

now, mine's an aod also, a 91, but the tranny was replaced by another aod awhile before i got the car and i don't know what year it is ( the tranny). i talked to someplace and they gave me a speedo gear for 3.73 ( which mine has) and it seems fairly accurate..but i think i got lucky on the year thing....of what tranny is in the car...there's also some that use a gear that works but it isn't the exact gear and it wears out faster...........maybe someone else can make a little better sense of all this and exactly what gears work with what years, what gears kinda work, and what totally doesn't work...

 

[Nasty Nate]

hahaha.

Mines a 91.

 

[86bluecobra]

4.10 is always what the mustang mags recomend for auto's.

 

[Nasty Nate]

Awesome.

And my luck, i'm a big jeep guy, a lot of us pull 8.8's from later model explorers, they come stock with the 4.10's and a trac-loc. I'm having a buddy pick em up from a junkyard for me, and ship em over here ($50 bucks total) not half bad!