The 5.29 Mega Thread!!

Yeah I need this guy in Portland, OR.

 

Did you have 4.88s before?

 

Did you h e 4.88s before?

 

Has there been anyone that has had 4.88s and made the swap to 5.29s? It’s obvious going from stock to either 4.88s or stock to 5.29s there is going to be a huge difference and I’m sure the review is pretty much the same. It would be nice to hear from people that have had both 4.88 and 5.29 with 35s.

 

Dibs on the 88s when you switch haha

 

Lol. If I could get someone that has gone from 4.88s to 5.29s to do a review so I know the difference that would be my biggest help. People that just go from stock to 5.29s have the same reviews as 4.88 people so it’s reallh hard to say whether the swap to 5.29s would be worth it or much different. If it is, since I have the 35s, I’d definitely sell you my 4.88s. You running 33s?

 

The review of 4.88s to 5.29s is 150rpm at around 60mph and it’ll cost you another $1500-$3000 minus the cost you sell your old gears for. Lol.

 

Well given the fact that I only spent $1,800 on my 4.88s with everything included, there is no way I would spend $3,000 for 5.29s. That is absolutely crazy. There would need to be a noticeable difference between the two and I would need to come out almost as a wash.

 

Your only loss would be labor. I think the gears could be sold for cost so you would only be out maybe $1000 for the labor.

I think I would do it if I wanted to add a front locker and everything had to be opened up again anyway.

 

Glad to do it. I kinda covered the actual rear 529 gear ratio change(pics of the Front clam regear coming soon to this thread).....but it would really be a winner if someone would post pics of the rear 3rd AND front 8" clam removal from the truck...............

 

Ya, if you can do the work yourself then it’s a bit cheaper. Seems that most here have to pay people to do that kinda labor so that was my quote.
I did mine myself. I was going to go to 5.29s. I found a buyer for my 4.88s for the same price I bought 5.29s but I’m in Hawaii so I had to factor in an additional $600 for shipping.
After getting myself over the 5.29 hype and looking at actual numbers it comes out to 150rpm at 60-70. For me it truly was not worth my time or effort to do the labor then go through break in procedures so I abandoned the idea.
Like I’ve said and you said too, going straight to either gear set from stock is a huge improvement and completely worth it but to me, going from 4.88s to 5.29s is hardly worth it.

 

Where did you go for your regear. I am on Maui and not sure who would do it. Otherwise I am buying prebuilt and just swapping out

 

I will take pics when I do mine. Won’t be for another year or so. Someone should be me to it.

Edit: thanks zuk for posting all the informative stuff. Reminds me of when I was on pirate4x4.

 

Totally do the pre built units. I went with ECGS units. Shipping is expensive but I don’t trust anyone down here enough to set up gears. It’s cheaper than having someone down here set it up anyway plus you get warranty. Install it yourself if you are decent with tools to save yourself some decent kala.

 

Yup. That was kinda my plan. I know I can do it. I rebuilt my transfer cases when I did duals on my 4Runner. I also did full front and rear axle rebuilds. Even had a shop machine me a axle alignment tool. Swapping diffs is not bad. I never did a clamshell one but I will get it done.

 

Clamshell is all gravy. More stuff but easy peasy. Just kinda heavy to drop it and put it back by yourself.

 

I was thinking about doing the locking hub conversion while I have that stuff apart. Will be nice to have 2lo again

 

Nice idea....prevents all that cv rubber boot wear.



Regarding the other comment about anybody that has ever gone from 488 to 529.....me me me. I did that on my 01 Taco with auto and 35" tires. Put the 488s in and it was nice to get back my acceleration and stuff. Was ok on the highway. But quickly realized that I should have gone full bore and did 529.....so I did. Love the 529's with my .71 OD.



So Shawn reinstalled the 8.75" rear 3rd and likes it alot. Remember...he had factory 430 gears and upped it to 5.29....that's a 23% improvement.


So Shawn just dropped off the front 8" clam to me. 529 Nitro gears and a Nitro master kit. He likes oem seals and so do I so the generic ones get cast aside and oem NOK seals to replace them.

























Hard to beat NOK oem seals for this application...the left one is for the cv stub. The right is the pinion seal.




Nitro 529....cryo treated also at http://cryogenicsinternational.com even the cosmoline is cryo treated.

 

The top is a generic from the kit....fits the end of the passenger side tube. OEM will be used instead.
The middle one is generic. It's the CV stub axle seal. OEM will be used instead.
The bottom one is a NAK pinion seal. Appears to be of equal quality with OEM....but OEM will be used instead.






KOYO bearings rule.





The base of operations of NAK(Taiwan).