Rear rebuild or upgrade? Help!!

Hello everyone,
Yep, finally joined the Toyota Family and pretty much had this tundra dropped in my lap. Local Northern California gal needed to sell and I thought of it as an investment. 2000 trd 4x4 4.7 v8 automatic. Only 110k miles. But its been a rough road in these hills. Turn out that after a month of driving I need to replace the rear axle internal parts. Ill have the specs in a few hours when I get to work, where I left the paperwork from the shop. Maybe 411 x 309 gear ratio. Complete guess right now. $900 for the used parts. Or should I buy a new rear axle that is geared for both: some highway but mostly very hilly and gravel roads?

 

Could just buy lockers and 4.33 gears! Might run you a little more but since you're in need of a replacement...why the hell not??

 

I have a

 

Mechanic that is going to work on it soon so where should I buy these parts or what should I tell them to order if I stay in the $1200 range?

 

Check out east coast gear supply for an exchange drop-in diff. You'll save a lot over the numbers you are throwing around, once your core is returned and credited.

The gear ratio needs to remain the same for a 4x4, unless you regear both diffs. From what I could find, your truck should have 3.91 gears. Your rear diff is known as an 8.4", even though the ring gear measures 8 inches

The advantage to regearing to a lower ratio (bigger number) is to accommodate larger tires - both correcting for the change in distance traveled per rotation, and the added torque required to accelerate heavier tires.