This is a good thread.
I am suprised by all this. Man, talk about a nightmare to figure out! There are SO MANY versions of the D30, hard to keep it all straight. Once this is all sorted out, maybe Doug can put this as a sticky in the axle section.
I also remember AKAMC had put a 3.73 gearset in his diff, wonder how he did it?
Found one using a car-part.com search - turns out they have two 3.54 geared front axles from four cylinder cars. I bought one of em whole, $150 shipped to me here in TX from Massachusetts. Amherst-Oakham Auto Recycling.
YUCK!!! I was just pointed to this thread by Eaglefreek and what a mess!! I have just installed a Ford 8.8 rearend in my Car with 3.73 gears and want to put those gears in the front as well......
So....... I saw something in the beginning of this thread posted by Dansvan that I am hoping is a loophole, Can I just make a custom ring gear spacer to put 3.73's in my current carrier?
or make mounts to put in a Ranger 35 IFS, the splines are the same as our 30 shafts.I'd like to see that, it sounds very interesting.
i called az diff. and had him ship the carrier and gear up to minnesota. After 2 months of i'll ship it tommorrow and 260 bucks i got the thing and not a chance it'll fit in the carrier. the ring gear he sent me is to big to even fit in if i machined the housing. i dont know what he did for you guys, but he may have just sent me something he had laying around to get me to stop calling. There is no evidence of machining he chargered 120 for on the carrier. i am going to drive 50 miles from my house there is a junk yard with a dana 35 independent front with 3.73's in a 97 ranger. splines are the same so i am going to use the housing and carrier off the ranger 35 and the axles, alxe tubes and cv shaft off the eagle 30. i will post how it goes.
so its true that the entire 235 axle housing is the problem then?
Crap.