I believe I have v6 3rds installed in my 85 axles. so looking for new Yukon gears and they list 4cyl and v6 as different gear sets. can you put v6 gears in a 4cyl housing? do I order the v6 or the 4cyl, the v6 seems like it would be stronger? thanks for any info.

 

Yes you can put V6 thirds into 4 Cylinder axle housings, however you need the V6 Thirds to go with the V6 Gears. You cannot install a V6 gearset into a 4 Cylinder third
Definitely a stronger gear set due to the additional 2 spider gears and larger carrier bearings
http://home.4x4wire.com/erik/diffs/

hope this helps

 

so I verify for sure that I have v6 thirds and order the gears for that thirds thanks for the reply........lol now that I read thru the links on id cases and the link to the ZUKS i'm now wondering if the 5.71 gears I have are as bad as I have read Zuks guy seems to think the are just as strong as 4.10 only place I have heard any thing good about the 5.71's.. whew having said that how would the truck do on the hiway with 5.71's and 33's? stuff can make your brain hurt

 

I've got 5:29s and 38.5s and it seems close to stock, maybe a little under but 5:71s and 33s would be screaming at highway speeds

 

I had 5:29's and 33's on my last 85 and it awesome on the freeway. If you never wanted to shift up hill at 60. That was about maxed out. But great offroads. This was before twin sticks BTW.