8.8 cross pin

I'm hoping to regear here before too awful long.

Concerning my 8.8: I read that I need a notched cross pin.(4.88's) I don't understand why. I believe it is to be able to get it past the ring gear. All the notched pins I've seen have a notch cut out of the middle of the pin. I don't understand how that would assist in getting the pin past the ring gear. Are there pins that have the notch cut the entire length of the pin? If so, wouldn't that weaken it some? Especially where the force is applied through the pin to the carrier? You'd loose some pin to carrier contact there I'd think.

So, if the purpose of a notched pin is to aid in clearing the ring gear; Can I not just grind off a couple of teeth on the ring gear and save the $50 for a cross pin?

I'm new to this whole re-gearing thing. I'm trying to talk myself into it. I don't have any doubts that I can't do it. It's just a matter of time for me, being as it is my DD. I'd really like to have this experience just for the simple fact of being able to help others with and have a hint of confidence.......and to be able to say that I did it myself.

Depending on the install kit you buy, it may come with the notched crosspin, but I kinda doubt it. I don't remember when I had my 8.8 gears installed what we did to get the pin in. I was pretty much the helper/holder of parts
I think we just filed down the edge of a couple teeth to slide the pin in with a couple taps of a hammer and punch.

FYI - Complete Offroad has the pin for $39. http://completeoffroad.com/i-122880-notched-cross-pin-8-8-78.html

Yes, the OE cross shaft will not clear 4.88's. Grind 2 teeth on the ring gear to make clearance for the OE cross shaft. I dont believe in compromising a cross shaft near 20% by notching it.

the notched pin gets installed in the carrier before you put the ring gear on...instead of sliding it out to get the c clips in, it gets rotated one way to get one axle in, 180 to get the 2nd axle in and then back 90 to get the lock pin in.

use a die grinder very carefully and grind 1/4" off of 1 tooth.. 4.56s you only need to do 1, maybe 4.88s you need to do 2? its such a small notch you make and its not even into the contact patch at all.

Make sure you line the ring gear up when you put it on with the hole for the cross pin so you only have to grind one tooth.

I had to take about 1/8th of an inch off the heel, but it didn't affect the pattern.

I posted pictures here couple years ago if you want to search for them.

me and a friend built our 8.8s at the same time. he wasn't very keen of the idea of taking a tooth off the ring gear, so he bought a notched x-pin. his 8.8 has 4:56s, and mine has 5:13s. i took a tooth off of my ring gear to save strength and about 50 bucks.

well his notched x-pin worked fine till this weekend when we went to install an aussie locker. we then found out that the pin must be able to slide in and out of the carrier. the notched pin doesn't help with this. we ended up taking a corner off one of his teeth. on both of our ring gears, 4:56, and 5:13 it was only 1 tooth. i think if you like any ring gear up correctly you can make it this way.

so in short, if you plan on locking your 8.8, take a tooth off the ring gear, because theres no other way to make it work

wishihad1 said:

me and a friend built our 8.8s at the same time. he wasn't very keen of the idea of taking a tooth off the ring gear, so he bought a notched x-pin. his 8.8 has 4:56s, and mine has 5:13s. i took a tooth off of my ring gear to save strength and about 50 bucks.

well his notched x-pin worked fine till this weekend when we went to install an aussie locker. we then found out that the pin must be able to slide in and out of the carrier. the notched pin doesn't help with this. we ended up taking a corner off one of his teeth. on both of our ring gears, 4:56, and 5:13 it was only 1 tooth. i think if you like any ring gear up correctly you can make it this way.

so in short, if you plan on locking your 8.8, take a tooth off the ring gear, because theres no other way to make it work

Click to expand...

Thank you!
Exactly what I was looking for.

RedHeep said:

Make sure you line the ring gear up when you put it on with the hole for the cross pin so you only have to grind one tooth.

I had to take about 1/8th of an inch off the heel, but it didn't affect the pattern.

I posted pictures here couple years ago if you want to search for them.

Click to expand...

I prefer to line the pin up between 2 teeth,that way you have to remove less material from each tooth!

I bought some used 8.8 4.88 gears that had the teeth ground some. I took pictures, since I haven't put them in yet. It appears they took more off of one tooth and just a hair off of one next to it. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but my camera sucks, so this may only be worth 1 or 2 words:

Yellow is the grinding, the red is a kind of transition to unground with green being unground. It looks like the largest grind is about 1/3 of the tooth deep. It tapers up to being only 1/16 inch deep over the course of 1/4 of the tooth from inside of ring toward the outside (yellow area). Then roughly another faint transition for another 1/4 of the tooth toward the outside (red area). People who have done this can confirm the look since I haven't installed it yet, but the PO apparently did.

RCP Phx said:

I prefer to line the pin up between 2 teeth,that way you have to remove less material from each tooth!

Click to expand...

I did that and ended up removing just as much from both teeth as I would have if I would have lined it up with just one.

Dunno, it's definately a situational thing, so everybody's is probably different.