The time finally came to replace both 3rd members in the Disco. I went with completely built 3rd members from Great Basin Rover, 4.43 gears and Detroit Truetrac front and rear. There were a couple of reason for the gears and lockers. Reliability was the biggest factor, I was really didn’t want to blow a spider gear or something else in the diff and be stuck at the top of a mtn or back in the woods. Another was I would switch back and forth from my 33s to my stock size tires for winter, towing or long hauls now I can keep the 33s on all the time.

I started to get a little worried that the 4.43 gears would be too low and I wouldn’t be able to maintain highway speeds. But it was what Bill recommended based on my driving conditions and what the hell do “I” know…Bill was spot on, the gear ratio is great. I haven’t had a chance to get it up to speed and see where the rpm and mph are or how far off the speed-o is but I can cruise along with traffic just fine and the pick-up is much better.

The 3rd members came complete, freshly painted green housing and ready to be bolted on, shipped to my door in (2) 5 gallon containers ($2600 plus $300 core, $25 for machining the rear diff to mate with a rotoflex, and $180 for round trip shipping of both diffs). Took me about 6-8 hours to get them installed, front and rear. The only two issues I ran into was my Tom Woods driveshaft wouldn’t mate with the new diff up-front, Bill said that he must have used a high angle pinion flange (I might have that part name wrong…it was the flange on the front of the driveshaft) and there is less clearance for the pinion bolt and nut so I had to order a machined front flange from Bill. The machined flange was $25 and I had to get the shaft re-balanced which was another $60. The other issue was when I re-installed the rear abs sensors, I didn’t seat them properly and the ABS light came on when I started the truck. I took the sensors out and when I re-installed them I gave them a light tap to make sure they were seated fully. No more ABS issues.

Attached are some pictures showing the difference in the 2 diffs and front flanges.

Very please with the setup and cant wait to get out of the break-in period. I will let you guys know how she handles on the trail.

 

So jealous...waiting on my front and rear 3rd members from Bill right now! 4.11s with an Ashcroft rear air locker and double cardon rear shaft w/ u-joint conversion. Bill is a great guy, very helpful.

 

And now you get to try them out in Moab, what a difference you are going to experience.
Have fun.

 

Now I'm jealous... I really wanted air lockers just couldn't caught up the cash!

Are you going with HD shafts?

 

I wish I had enough cash for the front too haha.



I've got a set of Ashcroft HD shafts to put in the rear when I install the 3rd members!

 

Nice man, you really can spend some serious cash on metal bits.

Not sure what D-shaft you have but make sure you wont be surprised with a problem when it arrives...Bill said he hadn't run into the issue i had in a while and just so happened to have a couple of those machined flanges on the shelf.

 

On a D2 changing the diff gears will not affect the speedo, because the SLABS computer measures the wheel speed sensors to output the speed signal to the speedometer and the other computers. So it should be the same as it was with your old gears. The only way I know of to adjust the speedo for your 33" tires would be to put something inline on the output from the slabs. there is a guy on discoweb that did that with his D2 after putting FZJ80 axles under it.

When you get a chance to two with it with those gears and the 33" tires, let us know how it goes. I'm thinking of ways to tow my 90, and re-gearing my Disco would be a lot cheaper than replacing it with something better suited.

 

It's the HD shaft we(RN) sold for a bit. Should be fine, hopefully!