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well i pulled my rear apart tonight and i have 31 spline axle shaft's . not that im complaining but the detroit i have is for 28 spline. question is can i swap in my 31 spline using all of the shim's and stuff without have'n to set up the gear's again?

are you talking about just putting it all back together, new gears?
if it is just going back together I would say you have a high chance it will, as long as everything goes back where you got it from but you still need to check the pattern. if anything is changed I would check the pattern.......so I guess I am saying I would check the pattern

I think all 4x4's that got the 9" came with a 31 spline.....what you gonna do with that detroit?

Well that kinda sucks.

I'm not real clear on what your question is. What exactly do you want to do?

If you tear into a 3rd member, you need to follow proceedure to put it back together. 9"s are pretty easy because you don't have to press bearings on and off to change shims. The pinion shim goes under the pinion assembly, and the backlash is adjusted via the spanner adjusters, so no shims!

okay forgot about the spanner adjust. i was in a rush and moms has dial up so it's hard for me to be patient. okay i have 2 option's take the 28 spline axles shafts that i have and use them or pull the detroit out and change the the inner spline to fit the 31 spline axle? im going to open the third member up today and see what i need. i'll get back to ya'll.

locked up
well i went with the 28 spline axle shaft's for now. i dont have the tool's to do the gears and adjust the spanner nut. hopefully nothing breaks before i can get a kit to set gears up.

just had a quick question. i know 31 spline shaft's are stonger than 28 just by looking at them but do you guy's think they'll hold up? the rig's not that heavy. weight would be the biggest concern i would think. my motor is'nt kicking out any major toque values.

Well, it really depends on your style. But maybe I can put it in perspective. I wheeled on 36's and my Ford 7.5, which has 28 spline axles for a long time. When it finally broke, it was the carrier bearing cap. The axles were fine. On the ford axle, the 28 spline SMALL bearing axles have a bad rap. You'll probably break front end parts before you break a rear axle.

I have heard that the 28 spline 7.5" axles and the 28 spline 9" axles are basically the same. My old 7.5" was spooled up for awhile and it didn't break(Busted lockrite spooled it) Nobodies run his welded with a 302 and didn't break a shaft so... It can be broken sure it definately isn't the strongest axle in the world but honestly I haven't ever even heard of one person who has broken a 7.5" 28 spline axle shaft which kinda strikes me as a little strange. BTW a Ranger 8.8" axle uses the same 28 spline axle as a 7.5". I can't for the life of me figure out why I've heard of no broken 7.5" shafts. Might be simply because the 7.5" much more comonly spits out it's spiders? I dunno. Could also be that not to many people keep a 7.5" long. Most people ditch it and upgrade to a 31 spline axle shaft at least.

Yea, I agree with everyone else, never heard of a broken shaft, just spider gears or joints breaking. Actually redneck88 had his 7.5 welded and he broke gears in the t-case goofin off.