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I've got a 1980 4x4 and the axle ratios in front and rear are 4.10. the rear axle has a really bad roar in it while I'm going down the road. I have 4 spare Chevy Luvs and they are all two wheel drives with 3.73 gears in the rear. I was wondering if it would be to big of a deal to stick a 3.73 gear ratio axle on my 4x4. I know that the front will then be pulling when the 4x4 is engaged.

Pull the driveline on the one you have and retorque the pinion nut. That will hold it together for quite a while. The sooner you do it, the better. I do not recall the size of the nut, it is around 1 1/4 inch or so though. The 76 I used to run I put another 45-50k on it after just retorquing the nut.

According to the books, 76-78 2WDs, 79-82 4x4s, and 81-82 Automatic trans trucks all have 4.10 gears. The only ones with 3.73 are 79-80 2WDs (man/auto both). 72-75 have 4.56 gears, and 81-82 4spds have 3.42.

Ok, I just went and looked at two of my spare trucks and one is a series 5 and one is a series 4. Do both of these have 4.10 gears?

the series 4 should be 4:56 and series 5 a 4:10

Alrighty,thank you. It looks like I will be swapping the axle out of the series 5 then.

Just make sure you get that nut TIGHT!!!! If I remeber right, it takes about 250 ft lbs of torque!!! I had a yellow luv that one of the rear wheel bearing went out and I was working at a gas station at the time and had one of the mechanics fix it for me. Well he didnt get the nut tight enough and luckily I am still alive to talk about it. Went on a trip to wonderful Nebraska with my buddy and 2 girls, long story short, it came loose luckily when I was doing about 20MPH on a road, drive line dropped and we skidded to an abrupt stop. I cant imagine what would have happened if it would have come loose doing 65 on the highway up or back from there. Probably would be 4 less people in the world right now.

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RIP R.J.B.

Before you swap be sure to check what you have for sure. With these old trucks you can't ever count on the original parts still being there. I have seen trucks with things so mixed up between years it looked like that Johnny Cash song 'One piece at a time':



I still say you tighten that pinion nut down and your noise problem will go away so well you'd think it was never there. Come to think of it the rear from that 76 I fixed is still going strong under my 77.

my 80 had an obnoxious growl and i tightened down the pinion nut and it calmed the sound down. I would say your problems probly there.

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1980 LUV 4x4, going under re-construction...

Besides jacking it up and turning the wheels is there any other way to tell what ratio it is. Are there any numbers on the differential that I could look at? Also does anyone know if they ever put a limited slip or a full time positive traction in any year model luvs?

LUVs never came whith limited slips that i know of. And the only other way i can tell you to find a gear ratio is to pull the third member out and count the gear teeth.

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1980 LUV 4x4, going under re-construction...