My son has a Ram Charger that he wants to put 3/4 ton axles in. The rear is no big deal just a bolt in. The front is another story. The axle he wants to put in has a bad ring and pinion but the rest is in great shape. He has another axle with a good ring and pinion that he wants to swap into the other one. The question I have is what parts should he use? The carrier and shims from the bad ring and pinion (originally in the axle). Or, use the other carrier with the ring gear from the donner axle with the shims from it? Then what about the pinion shims? Do we use the shims from the good pinion or the shims from the bad pinion from the good housing? He has no money and the first national bank of Dad is closed. Any help on this would be appreciated as I have never swapped gears in this way.

Thanks,
Digger73 (Mike)

For simplicity sake, how about just swapping the knuckles and ball joints form the blown axle to the donor. No massing with ring and pinion.

If the donor axle is from a different truck, well yes to all your above questions. You're going to have to change shims so might as well have the whole assortement handy.

We discussed doing the outer swap. The donor would have to have the stub shafts married to the axles due to full time vs lock out hubs. Then we get into the ball joints and outer U joints. I told him that would be the easiest way to go but he has no $$$.

Thanks,
Digger73 (Mike)