So I'm thinking I'm gonna go with 4.88's and then do the supercharger down the road and some point. I was wondering if I didn't do the East Coast Gear Supply Route how much would a regear cost? I was thinking around 1200 just for labor front and rear and then another 600 total for parts. Does 1800-2000 sound about right to you guys?
When I was looking at pricing for my regear, parts alone for each diff was about $450-500. You have to remember, its a good idea to have the seals and bearings replaced when getting new gears. Master install kit is the most complete way to go. Then most shops will charge 250-300 to set up gears if you bring in a diff. so take $900-1000 for parts, $500-600 if you brought the diffs in. Then tack on another 2 hours for the rear and 3-4 hours for the front if you have the shop pull them. Even at a light shop rate of $80/hr you are still looking at between $4-500 in additional labor just for the ease of dropping off the car and picking it up done.
Then to top it off, you have to factor in changing the gear oil twice. once on initial then one time at about 500-1000 to remove the particulate from the break in period.
So to put it in realistic numbers for you to weigh your options:
- If you purchase the diffs with just a standard gear install complete through ECGS you are looking at $1240 + return shipping if you return your cores when complete
- If you do all the install work yourself, you can expect another $50-60 in gear oil for initial and drain and refill after.
- If you take your truck and the ECGS diffs to a shop and have them install them, you are looking at a minimum of an additional $400-500 in install costs.
- If you have a shop build the diffs, you are looking at more just because ECGS gets the parts so cheap and basically doesn't charge hardly anything to set of the gear sets. You would be looking at least $1850 to drop off the runner and tell the shop to just do the whole thing and source parts from their supplier.
I had purchased a "good to go, ready to run" geared rear diff. When looking it over after purchase, I noticed that the mesh pattern wasn't great and the gears looked to have been heated due to being ran low on oil but thought it would give it a shot. I installed it, topped it off with oil only to drive around the block and hear a whine.
Needless to say I pulled it back out, reinstalled my stock one and weighed my options.
I got the used diff for $300 from a friend who changed plans, who got it from a guy who needed the actuator, who got it from a shop who inspected it and sold it as good to go. None of the parties had installed it and ran it. Needless to say, there was no one owning up to the bad diff and I was gonna have to make the best of it.
I made a call to my local gear shop and explained that I would like to keep the labor on the west coast and help a shop out if they could match the price of buying a complete from ECGS and shipping costs to send the bad diff back for the core.
With the shop making nothing on the parts, for what I could get everything taken care of through ECGS, they would be making $25-50 bucks on labor. I ended up going with ECGS for the diff rebuild and all the install labor I did myself. Core value on the rear e locker diff through ECGS was $450 so that helped the decision toom and put 150 towards one of their diffs.
After that long winded way of explaining that ECGS was the best price around, it just goes to show that ECGS is not a bad way to go, even if you have a shop near you install the diffs. $ for $ it ended up being cheaper.
The front was purchased complete from Liny4runner and was in great shape. :clap2:
Even with getting my diffs used for great prices, (front has a trutrac) and doing my own work, I was still in to my regear for about $1500 + new front outer diff seals , oil (initial, top off of the front diff twice, and drain and fill rear after breakin, a tube of FIPG and a looong weekend of work. (3/16th thick Skids are a B***h to deal with and I have two peice wheel adapters to pull in order to get the front diff done so do it right the first time. I had to swap out a CV shaft and a driver side diff seal after everything was back together because a groove had formed on the shaft right where the new seal sat and it was leaking.)
Sorry for the rant but it explains what I went through and the things I looked at when making my decisions with the regear.
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