[Sinisterspeed]

Usually when doing a 4wd conversion your not going to be running a stock tire size anyhow. Once your truck is set up you can drop it off at the 4x4 shop usually for 750 bucks and have the gears changed to what ever you want front and rear once you had decided on how you truck will finally be set up and what it will be used for.

Richmond gears usually are around $136 an end. Lockers and carriers are where your money goes when your talking 500+ for a Detroit to fit a 60 or a 14 bolt 350+ for a trac lok its better to use the one you have if it has a locker or factory limited slip or find one that does. Then just change the gears rather then going with the cheaper find another axle route which could mean bad brakes that need tending to as well as loosing the locker that you have in your axle you can usually go from 3.73 to 4.10 without buying a Carrier or 4.56 to 4.88 same thing. I personally have tried the "just buy another axle" route before it cost me way more then the 136 bucks for the gear set and 150 bucks to have someone set it up. Now when you start adding new bearings (that either axle may need) or a locker; carriers can usually be had at any wrecking yard for under 70 bucks if your needing to change to something drastically different from what came in the axle in question.

As I was saying to start with it is further down your list of priorities then finding all the parts you need first to pull the conversion off in the first place. How much would it cost to buy all the parts needed separately or things you might have forgot about like the adapter and new transmission you will now need. there are many ways to go about this as well. You can use a divorced transfer case and eliminate the need for the new transmission. Yet you would have to make a new cross member, build a special driveline to go from a slip yoke 2wd trans to a u joint input of the t case. eliminating the need of the trans/transfer case set up. If you chose this route you could use one from a Chevy,ford or a dodge each with different consequences. Although it would now invoke new costs. Thus better to stick to what you can find if you can complete the project. You could use a ford mounted NP205 with the output shaft on the wrong side. but this would cause you to have to run a ford front axle but this would give you the ability to run a high pinion 44 with crossover steering factory thus eliminating your possible 700 crossover steering you may be planning on doing. You can also get dodge stuff that look vary similar to a Chevy set up some even coming with 4.88 gears stock but the pumpkin is mounted 1 inch or so to far over to make it ever mount up correctly on a Chevy.

So I stick to what I said in the first place. The gear ratio is much further down your list of priorities then you might think. Finding all the parts in one place (like a donor truck) is much more important then worrying about the gear ratio. It can be fixed later for alot less then fixing one of the above mentioned things that do happen and most likely will need to be changed to accomplish the desired finished project anyway.