Jim Carter’s tech section has some interesting tips in it but I wish some one who knows
Jim would have him tell one of his staff to remove or modify this paragraph in his tech
section:
“For those wanting a new 4.10 ring and pinion, production was begun again in April
2000 (at this time they also produced a 3.90 ratio). In order to use these assemblies in the
1940's and 1950's truck, they must be attached to the differential carrier from a 1964-72
3/4 ton. Only then can the complete pumpkin be installed in the older truck.”
It should read:
“At one time early in this century a run of 4.10 and 3.90 ring and pinion gears
were made but the supply was exhausted in short order and are no longer available.”
I have been asked many times about this and have seen this misinformation repeated often
on this and other forums. Those of us with stock ¾ and 1ton trucks would kill
for either one of these gear sets but the fact is that no vendor is willing to make the
investment to have a gear manufacturer run off a few hundred or a few thousand of them.
It simply amazes me that no one has picked up on this hole in the supply chain. This is
the one item that almost every owner of a ¾ or 1ton asks starts looking for about the first
week that he has been driving his truck. In other words out of the hundreds of thousands
of these series trucks still on the road that were built from the 50’s thru the early 70’s
surely there is a huge market for these gear set.
I’ve written to every US gear grinder that I could find and have never gotten one single
response back so it‘s clear that the US manufacturers cannot produce this item even at an
inflated cost. China’s industrial machine is still in its infancy and they could produce
these gear sets rather inexpensively now. As unfortunate as it is, in a decade or so China
will take over as the worlds industrial leader and as the American dollar continues to
loose more and more ground the cost to us will really be out of the reach of most average
restorer here in the States.
But right now, I would be willing to take out a mortgage or come out of retirement to
acquire a couple of sets of 3.90 gears. I might even consider renting my “big old wife” out
for domestic chores in order to get a couple of sets of new 4.10 gears.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
Last edited by Denny Graham; 11/16/2011 12:09 PM.
