I have done a good chunk of research to school myself up on the 10.25 axles but here is my situation. The rear axle under my truck has failed, not to the point of catastrophic failure yet. The rear axle is a sterling 10.25 first generation (the one with the short pinion and yoke). The failure is bad enough that the pinion has slid back into the spider gear housing and started to eat into it. It caused a horibble metal clacking sound coming home from 4th of July. The sound was intermittent and and i drove it until wednesday evening. by then it got noticeably worse by vibrating up the drive train enough to notice it. Truck is currently grounded until i can move it to a shop so i can overhaul the axle. I'm seeing a guy today about a new (used) axle. My plan is to swap these axles temporarily while i rebuild the original. I know there are a lot to think about when it comes to overhauling an axle such as preload, tolerances, runouts, bearing install etc. but my dad has a friend who works and owns a drivetrain shop so if i have a question i can go to him. I was planning to overhaul the axles at some point anyway. First Question: does the spider gear and casing come as one unit? Second: will spider gear and casing from the sterling 10.50 be a direct swap into the 10.25, one off road website said it was but i want to know if it is true or do i have to buy a few other things. seeing as how i'm overhauling the axle, may as well upgrade to the 3 spider vice 2. Three: Is the ring and pinion from the sterling 10.25 2nd gen a direct swap to first gen, or do i have to buy 2nd gen bearings. obviously the pinion is longer so i will have to get a new pinion yoke for a 2nd gen. Fourth: I plan on regearing the ring and pinion down to 3.55 gears cause the 4.10 gears on the diesel is just plain stupid. However, i had some information (from unreliable source) that if i gear down to a 3.55, the 4.10 spider gear won't work. is this true? doesn't matter cause i have to replace it anyway but how would ring and pinion affect the spider gear and case. maybe im missing something. Five: Are there any other upgrades/ improvements to i should consider. I really don't want to do this **** again or order parts and find out one of them is not what i want. Thank you.
