Re-geared to 4.10's on OE tires

What is the advantage of the solid pinion spacer?

Now that's you've had the 4.10's for a while, are you 100% satisfied or do you sometimes wish you had gone for 4.30 gears?
I'm back and forth between those two, because I have the 4 speed auto and non-vvti in my 03. I might drop down a tire size from 265/60r18 to 255/60r18 because my truck is lowered and rubs a little on the frame with hard turns.

Plus if I'm completely honest,. I sometimes wish I had gone with 4.88 instead of 4.56 in my 06 on 33's.

 

Solid pinion once setup means I can easily replace pinion seals or pinion flanges without having to worry about over torquing and crushing a crush sleeve which can lead to pinion bearing failure.

It's also stouter and means if in a performance vehicle (4x4, drift, etc) I can hammer down without potential deflection. If on a 4x4, you can potentially catch the pinion flange on a rock and crush the sleeve a bit too (very rare, but possible).

 

So "no" to the 4.30 envy?

 

It's still in the back of my mind. But I think I'd be seeing worse MPG on the freeway.

1st is already a big difference for me with the 5 speed.

 

A little late to the party but I just picked up a 2002 4wd AC with LSD and 4.56s. 265/70/16 with a speedo that’s off now due to gearing, but clocked next to my wife’s cruiser on the freeway at 70mph, my Speedo reads 80 @ about 2450rpm. I don’t know if I should yellow box it and move forward with some 255/75/17s or regear back to 4.10 with a mild upgrade in tire size. I definitely want to be capable on moderate trails when needed. Hmmm

 

255/75r17s and yellow box, 1000%

 

Back to 4.10 and mild upgrade in tires, eh? Just curious about your rationale. Have you had experience with this same situation before?

 

I edited my post. I meant bigger tires!

I love the 4.56 and 33's combo on my 06.
I imagine 32's would be within the parameters of the 4.56

 

Haha, okay. Either way, I better start saving and picking up extra call at work!

 

I'd stick with the 4.56's if you plan for bigger tires.

Isn't the yellowbox programmable? (I never checked as the 05-06 can't use it.)


Or if you have the time, you could possibly grab sequoia 3rd members and swap them for 4.10's until you get your lift/larger tires.

 

It's all going to come down to what you're planned use is for the truck. If you tow or haul a bunch of weight, then the 4.56 would be a perfect gear ratio with the optional stock sized 265/70-16 tires. I currently have larger 265/75-16 tires with swapped in 4.10 gears. I tow and haul very heavy loads of firewood quite often. I would definitely benefit going to a lower gear ratio, such as a 4.30 or 4.56. Keep in mind that the original sized tires on the early FGT were a smallish 245/70-16, while the 265/70-16 tires were an option. I also drive closer to 55mph everywhere, so my RPM isn't going to be as high as someone who cruising at 70mph+.

For overall performance i do like the 4.10 gears matched up with a 265/75-16 tire. 4.56 does sound a bit low for the average driver if you're not towing heavy or laden your truck down with all sort of armor and amber colors LED lightbars. Obviously the larger the tire you end up choosing, the more modifications you'll have to contend with to make them fit. Plus you'll then get worse fuel economy and more wear and tear on the suspension and drivetrain components.

"Moderate trails" can mean many different things to different people. I'm seen plenty of civics, Soobs, and prius on Back County Discovery routes. I've also seen built to the hilt way-over lander toyotas on the same exact trails...along with a stock early 90's F350 crewcab with a service bed and stock sizes tire...that were pumped up to 80psi. Most all BDR trails can easily be conquered by a FST with smallish 245/70-16 while in 2wd. Thow is in 4wd and you won't have any problems. If you want to have larger tires for the sake of larger tire, then that's a personal preference thing, and that will have to be your own decision, but the stock sized tires will get you most places, short of crawling rock ledges or tire swallowing mud holes.

It would be kind of a shame to swap out your 4.56 gears when you could probably trade them with somebody else. You didn't mention what brand of LSD you have, so i assume it's stock tundra?

 

I'm with the others here and think you should stick with the 4.56s, especially if you're going to do anything with the tires. If you ever go up to 285s/33's, you'll be a little underwhelmed with 4.10s.

If you're dead-set on going to 4.10's, I'll be removing my stock differentials with 4.10s with an LSD in a few weeks and we could work out a deal. I'm also in SD.

 

Sounds like you two guys should get a room...and swap diffs

 

Yes you can. I have one in mine. It required tapping into a single wire behind the gauge cluster + power. Easy.

 

So, I’m not dead-set on changing but would 32s be a good compromise with 4.56 gearing? I’m thinking it might work and I’d have a little extra punch left over.

 

I would like to eventually get a small trailer like a Scamp or other fiberglass model to tow occasionally but that would be much later on my list of projects, so kinda looks like I’m talking myself into keeping the 4.56s.

 

That's what I'm thinking

 

@empty_lord posted details on how to get it to work with the '05-06. It's not plug-and-play, and requires intercepting a wire going to the cluster IIRC. We were shooting the shit w/ @daveeasa about a bypass harness to make it plug n play, but I don't recall where the conversation landed. If it were possible to make it plug n play (I hate slicing/splicing OEM harnesses) I'd do it. I'd love to get my numbers back in order, having my MPG app showing me down in the single-digits for fuel economy a couple fill-ups ago broke my heart a little bit.

 

Dan is very short on details, so far above my level as to be of limited value in terms of me understanding what the requirements are, unfortunately. Shifty might be able to translate into something digestible but I'm swamped / overloaded as it is and behind on all sorts of things so I wouldn't bank on me doing much to help on this. I still have to do my '05 Tacoma yellrbox at some point, since 4.56 I'm reading higher than actual.

What I did for the tailgate lock (which was so crappy I've disconnected it) was depin and re-pin to 2 pos 090IIU connector then build a Y to feed the lock and the original OEM connector. So no cutting/splicing, just de-pin, re-route, and double-crimp to marry. I did something similar for my 3rd brake light to get the cargo signal accessible but haven't done anything with it yet, just have bare wire crimped together at the bottom of my B pillar to complete the circuit. Someday I'll get to that and use it to fire a relay to feed my shell / bed lighting plans.

 

Just how light of a trailer is it?

I’m just going to say this...diesel brodozers are know for installing the largest tire they can on their pick’em up trucks so that they can tow their glamping trailers around...or toy haulers, or their excavators. I have a good friend who does hot shot transport for a living. I’ve been on many road trips with him taking turns hauling heavy 5th wheels, slide in campers, and bumper pull trailers. When you’re towing, keep the tires stock and it will rock. I personally think that bumping up your tire size to match your existing 4.56 gearing would be going backwards....UNLESS you want to have 32” tires. Keep in mind that the larger the tire, the worse the fuel economy.

Different vehicle, but i used to have a jeep CJ7 (straight 6 engine) that had a 5 speed, 4.56, and 32x11.5x15 tires. The gearing was perfect for that jeep, and that jeep spent a genuine 50% of the time offroad being hammered on. If the jeep spent more time on the highway, then i would have kept the 4.10 gears in order to keep the rpm lower. I also have a second CJ7 that has a v8, 5 speed, 4.88 gears, 33” tires. With that low gearing it isn’t very pleasurable to drive on the road. I then also have a jeep YJ with the gutless 4cyl, 5speed, 32” tires, and the 5.13 gears are awesome for the highway.

So what all does that mean? Well each engine will react different to gearing, but if you had 31”-ish tires on it, 4.10 would match up pretty well.

 

All understood. I would only tow a small trailer like a 13ft - 16ft and it wouldn’t be often. No toy hauler for me. My 32s would most likely be more of the pizza cutter variety of ~10” wide. I do not want to go overboard, just enough to give me a bit better clearance for the rocks now and then. This is not going to be my daily. I have time to figure it out since I need to save up for the suspension I want. I appreciate all the comments and suggestions.

 

Would need to source a PCB connector to make a T harness and intercept the SPD signal to the cluster. The output is from the ABS unit. Impossible to get that connector for a t harness.