I was able to pick up a rear end from a 96 Firebird and swap it into my car, no problem. After driving it around for a week and thankfully not seeing any leaks, I changed the fluid. I was told the gears were 3.23:1, which was what I had in my old rear end. You can probably already tell where this is going. Stamped on the gears in the new rear was 41:15, or 2.73:1. What do I need to do to get the gear ration back to the original 3.23? Can I swap out the gear on the carrier?

 

Problem is you now have a 2-series carrier for the 2.73 gears. To upgrade to a 3.23 ring and pinion, you will either need to swap in a 3-series carrier, or use a thicker 3.23 ring gear to fit into the 2-series carrier. What was wrong with the old rear axle assembly? You have all the parts.

 

The problem with the old assembly was the pinion bearing was messed up. Much rather than take everything apart, I just swapped in a new assembly. Now it seems that trying to avoid that is a futile effort.

 

You have to check the ratio BEFORE you pay for it and take it home and install it.

 

Yes, yes, yes. Lesson learned. Back to the topic at hand; I'm assuming I need to pick up a new ring and pinion, because the old ring isn't thick enough, or can I reuse the old ones and space it out? Is it a fitment issue, or a placement issue?

 

Potentially stupid question, but would it be possible to take the limited slip components out a a series two carrier and swap them into a series three? Series three carriers are found easily enough at the junk yard, but they are all open diffs and I like having the limited slip.

 

no, an open carrier can not be converted into a limited slip. You can buy a series 3 limited slip for about 400 or so, or you can just buy series 2 3.73 from jegs for 205 http://www.jegs.com/i/Richmond+Gear/...007-1/10002/-1.

 

Ok, thanks for the help.