I did the swap ok. Everything went fine. I have to ask a noob question here so please bear with me. A buddy of mine told me that because I swapped the rear end I would need to set the backlash. I really do not know what this means or how to even do it. But from what I read it means

backlash, sometimes called lash or play, is clearance between mating components, sometimes described as the amount of lost motion due to clearance or slackness when movement is reversed and contact is re-established. For example, in a pair of gears, backlash is the amount of clearance between mated gear teeth. This gap means that when a gear-train is reversed the driving gear must be turned a short distance before all the driven gears start to rotate. ( wikipedia is great )

Based on this I told my buddy that the rear came out of a working 4th gen. So wouldn't the backlash already have been set correctly? Sorry if this is a dumb question but I just need to know the correct answer. Thanks

 

You only need to set that when you change the gearset to a diferent size.
Only thing you have to worry about is parking brake cables.

 

If all you did was to swap th ewhole rear, and didn't take anything apart inside of it, then you haven't changed the backlash that's already there; and it'll be fine.

Make sure you put new fluid in it. I highly recommend Mobil1 synthetic.

 

Thank you guys. This is what I was thinking to be the case but just wanted to double check.