Gears and Aluminum Driveshaft Installation...

[MyEarsHurt]

Ok I consider myself to be mechanically inclined, but I am scared to death of installing gears. So my question is this, I was thinking about getting 3.73 w/ and aluminum driveshaft on my 98 gt AUTO. How much should I expect to get charged for installation if I take it to a transmission shop? I dont want to get ripped off. Also from my understanding, I will need the transmission shop to remove my old u joints and old yoke and install them on the new aluminum driveshaft in order for it to fit...so thats just more $$. Anyway, if anyone has any rough ideas of what the cost would be, please let me know...

 

[NewStangNewbee]

Its not rocket science do it by yourself. If you need help just pm me.

 

[bdcardinal]

if you get the aluminum driveshaft from FRPP it is purely plug and play. the price depends on where you live. around here you are looking at $500+ for the install. some places might only be ~$200.

 

[03gtmustang]

You can the the driveshaft yourself, the install for gears should cost around $200. Youll also need a chip for the speedo correction. Im selling my Superchip Microtuner for a pretty low price, let me know if your interested.

 

[tangerine]

they should charge between 175 and 250. The gears aren't as bad as everyone makes them out to be but the are very time comsuming. To swap the U joints shouldn't take no time at all.

 

[NewStangNewbee]

Im 17 and i did the gears with no problem at all. Its no that hard and you can take the money and do other things!

 

[MyEarsHurt]

Thanks for all the quick input, I guess once I get the parts, I will give it a whirl. So you dont need any "special" tools for changing the u joints and yokes?

 

[NewStangNewbee]

For the differential which you should do by yourself you need to go to autozone and they have a cool rent-a-tool for free program. Its called pinion gear puller. Also you need to develop 140 lb's of torque to get the main pinion bolt off lol. There is tons of stuff on the net for doing it. Look at corral something...(type it in yahoo) they have a really good thing about changing the gears.

 

[cmb91LX]

If you have never done gears before, DO NOT attempt to do them yourself regardless of how you perceive you mechanical aptitude. The members here usually provide very useful and precise info to help people out but on this one I am sorry to say that they may be causing you more harm than good. If you mess up at all, it could really damage the rear, and not just the gears. Good reputable shops charge anywhere from 200-400 for a rear gear setup and the d/s should be a free installation along with the gears since they will unbolt it anyway. Would you rather save a few greenbacks and do it yourself just to have the potential to spend much much more to correct what you have messed up? peace of mind is worth the cash to me.

 

[GTsleeper]

If you have never done gears before, DO NOT attempt to do them yourself regardless of how you perceive you mechanical aptitude. The members here usually provide very useful and precise info to help people out but on this one I am sorry to say that they may be causing you more harm than good. If you mess up at all, it could really damage the rear, and not just the gears. Good reputable shops charge anywhere from 200-400 for a rear gear setup and the d/s should be a free installation along with the gears since they will unbolt it anyway. Would you rather save a few greenbacks and do it yourself just to have the potential to spend much much more to correct what you have messed up? peace of mind is worth the cash to me.

I am so with cmb91LX here. I like this forum a lot and the individuals who help out, but installing gears is not something you want to make a mistake on. Its also better to have a machine press for your bearings. And at a shop its almost better to dismantel your whole rear end and install the gears. The driveshaft you should be able to perform but the gears definently take to a shop instead of costing you more you might actually save. Most shops do charge around 200 to 400 depends on who it is. Try to find an actual Mustang shop, a couple of weeks ago Horsepower T.V. did a special on installing gears try to find that episode its got a lot of good info. Remeber a good mechanic is a good mechanic but good tools are even better.

 

[MyEarsHurt]

Yeah, I saw that episode of horsepower tv, and thats what scared the crap out of me, to the point where I wasnt going to attempt to install the gears myself. I was going to attempt the driveshaft install, but if you think the shop will do it for free anyway, then I wont bother, I would rather have a pro do it, then me try it for the first time.

 

[mpcv2000]

The drive shaft itself it a direct bolt on , look at my thread I posted a while back about it ( see here ) I think I'm a pretty good do it yourself guy but in my case not enough to do the rear end gear swap so if you think that you can do it go for it but in my case I paid to get it done and it's working flawless since Nov. 2002. I think the guy charged my $200.00 and to break it in I went to the track ..