Gear swap or rear swap?
 

I have an 89 Trans Am with a 10 bolt rear with drum brakes and 2.73s. I would like to upgrade to 3.23s or 3.42s, and I'm trying to figure out whether it would be cheaper to swap the gears themselves or try to find a used rear with 3.23 or 3.42 and swap that. Another thing is that most rear ends I have looked at have disk brakes - would it be hard to swap that in, considering that I have drums right now?

Thanks for any help guys.

Chris

try and find a disc brake rear. they are an easy swap, just make sure you also get the disc brake porportioning valve with the rear.

The master cylinder, rear brake hose, and parking brake cables are also different between the two.

So it sounds like I would have to do a lot of things to use a disk rearend - is it possible to find drum rearends with 3.23s or 3.42s?

It's probably easier...

Deleting
 

H

It would be easier to swap out the rear end for another unless you have all of the proper tools to set the ring and pinion up. If you are not familiar with setting the preload and everything on a gear set swap than just changing the rears would be easier since it requires special tools to install new gears plus it's a pain trying to remove and install a new pinion gear.

Rear end swap is not hard, and no special tools needed. Took me about 6 hours total to pull out the old one and install the new one after I blew mine up a few weeks back. Wasn't hard, just time consuming.

I'd highly reccomend getting the e-brake cables and the prop valve and getting a complete disc rear. - as stated, unless you have the know how and the proper tools, you can't properly set-up a dnother gear. - As long as the diff comes with the brake hoses at the calipers/on the diff, your line from the body will hook up, and the e-brake cables are a direct swap. Then, swap the prop-valve, or shim up yours. Then you've gained better gearing, posi, and better braking, which is the most important thing when it comes to a heavy performance vehicle.

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like it's definitely gonna be a rear swap then - by the way I already have posi. You guys have any ideas where the cheapest place to get one would be - junkyard or ebay maybe? Also, is it worth it to go to 3.23's or should I just go all the way up to 3.42s? Thanks for the help!

Junkyard posis are a crapshoot... might work, might not. Get a new one.

As for gears... go 3.42. You'll be much happier with them.