The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline 1998 S10 six lug

The side gears and spider gears did not have thrust washers. I printed out a parts diagram of the GM 55T differential, and these washers were never a part of the OE design. I agree that a good machinist should be able to polish the surfaces, and fabricate some thrust washers to fix this problem. I assume the question will be, how much wear has occurred, and can the carrier be cut down, and then brought back to original specs by the thrust washers? Thus far, the ring & pinion look good, and being a 3.90, they should be an improvement over the OE 4.55

I'll be disassembling the carrier today, and taking it to my shop for evaluation. I'll post a followup when I have some more information.

Still looking for recommendations for a good replacement for the OE 3/4 ton axle. Seems this GM 55T 1/2 ton differential swap is the best way to upgrade the OE 3/4 ton axle. If this cannot be done, then replacing the axle may be my only remaining solution. I'm still leaning towards the 55-70 Chevy C-10 12 bolt, because it is still GM, and it is widely supported for parts and upgrades. Aside from that, the Dana axles from the jeep series may also be a good alternative. I'm not a fan of putting a Japanese axle in a 1942 Chevrolet truck.