off-roader
Expedition Leader
Yup, lift and check is most accurate method since there's no telling what the previous owner might have done.
Did the 94-97 SR ever come with 4.90 gears and air locker?
- Thread starter jeep-N-montero
- Start date
So does anyone know what the codes on the top of the front diff housing actually mean,I had a theory,and googling it blew it straight out of the water and confused it further.
The best way to see if your diff is a locking one is to get under and take a peek,non locker will just have a breather and a brake pipe coming down to the axle,a locking one has those plus an air line and a pair of wires which go to a connector on the inside of the left chassis leg just above the radius arm.
Anyone have a surefire way of telling which size diff it is without opening it up? I'm guessing with the combined knowledge of everyone here we could make a kind of guide for future generations to look up :sombrero:
The best way to see if your diff is a locking one is to get under and take a peek,non locker will just have a breather and a brake pipe coming down to the axle,a locking one has those plus an air line and a pair of wires which go to a connector on the inside of the left chassis leg just above the radius arm.
Anyone have a surefire way of telling which size diff it is without opening it up? I'm guessing with the combined knowledge of everyone here we could make a kind of guide for future generations to look up :sombrero:
off-roader
Expedition Leader
I believe for all 92-00 Montero's and/or 91-99 Pajero's...
3.5L gas/petrol & 2.8TD should come with the 9.5" (big) rear diff. stock.
3.0L gas/petrol should come with the smaller rear diff stock
For US gen 2 rigs the SR's (both the earlier 3.0L & the 3.5L) came with lockers. 92-93 had the smaller rear diff until 94 when the 3.5L first became available. Then they upgraded the diff to the larger 9.5" ring and pinion set.
After 97, they dropped the SR designation. To get the locker you need to search for a vehicle with the winter package which also included seat heaters in addition to the locker.
in all cases the selectable locker was air/pneumatically actuated so yes, you can look for the additional air line in the rear diff in addition to the locker switch in the lowest fronT center dash panel under the radio. If the switch is not there then it's almost a virtual certainty that it did not come with a stock locker.
if you believe there is a locking diff, it's very easy to confirm its function...
1) ensure the vehicle is in 4wd low.
2) from a stop, actuate the locker switch at a location on the road where you can make a legal U-Turn.
3) roll down the window and make that turn and listen for a tire slightly skidding during the turn. It will not be a screeching tire sound. It will sound like a tire is dragging on the pavement rather than rolling. This indicates you have a locked diff because both tires must spin at the same speed and during a slow speed turn one of them will make that noise instead of the normal rolling sound.
HTH
3.5L gas/petrol & 2.8TD should come with the 9.5" (big) rear diff. stock.
3.0L gas/petrol should come with the smaller rear diff stock
For US gen 2 rigs the SR's (both the earlier 3.0L & the 3.5L) came with lockers. 92-93 had the smaller rear diff until 94 when the 3.5L first became available. Then they upgraded the diff to the larger 9.5" ring and pinion set.
After 97, they dropped the SR designation. To get the locker you need to search for a vehicle with the winter package which also included seat heaters in addition to the locker.
in all cases the selectable locker was air/pneumatically actuated so yes, you can look for the additional air line in the rear diff in addition to the locker switch in the lowest fronT center dash panel under the radio. If the switch is not there then it's almost a virtual certainty that it did not come with a stock locker.
if you believe there is a locking diff, it's very easy to confirm its function...
1) ensure the vehicle is in 4wd low.
2) from a stop, actuate the locker switch at a location on the road where you can make a legal U-Turn.
3) roll down the window and make that turn and listen for a tire slightly skidding during the turn. It will not be a screeching tire sound. It will sound like a tire is dragging on the pavement rather than rolling. This indicates you have a locked diff because both tires must spin at the same speed and during a slow speed turn one of them will make that noise instead of the normal rolling sound.
HTH
Last edited:
Toasty
Looking for that thing i just had in my hand...
Ray's spot on there
If you have a 3.5L engine you will have a 9.5" rear axle, if you have a 3.0L engine you will have a 9" rear axle and if you own a Montero sport with a 2.4L engine or Gen 1 with a 2.6L engine you will have the 8" rear axle. That's basically it.
If you have a 3.5L engine you will have a 9.5" rear axle, if you have a 3.0L engine you will have a 9" rear axle and if you own a Montero sport with a 2.4L engine or Gen 1 with a 2.6L engine you will have the 8" rear axle. That's basically it.
I got some even more confusing information,in Australia the 3.0 V6 came with the bigger 4.875 diffs if they are manual,and smaller 4.875 if they are auto,but they only got the 12v engine and not the 24v :Wow1:
I took the 4.636 axles out of my japanese 2.8 and replaced them with 4.875s from a UK spec shogun 24V 3.0 v6 (Think it was a 98 pre facelift). Both axles had 12 bolts around the housing,however the rear prop flanges were different. The front axle bolted straight in,shafts were the same too,which is really confusing because I've read that the number of splines on the shafts for the small diffs were less. So now i'm super confused with all the conflicting info i've had! Looking through the UK forums is no good either,nobody there believes in re-gearing to compensate for bigger tyres at all!
I think I should get the chassis number and call mitsubishi. If I get the part number for the ring would I be able to tell what size the diffs are? Or would they even be ale to tell me?
I took the 4.636 axles out of my japanese 2.8 and replaced them with 4.875s from a UK spec shogun 24V 3.0 v6 (Think it was a 98 pre facelift). Both axles had 12 bolts around the housing,however the rear prop flanges were different. The front axle bolted straight in,shafts were the same too,which is really confusing because I've read that the number of splines on the shafts for the small diffs were less. So now i'm super confused with all the conflicting info i've had! Looking through the UK forums is no good either,nobody there believes in re-gearing to compensate for bigger tyres at all!
I think I should get the chassis number and call mitsubishi. If I get the part number for the ring would I be able to tell what size the diffs are? Or would they even be ale to tell me?
If you did call you would have to get measurments for all of the ring gears offered to know which size diff you have. Basically it works out to bigger ring, bigger housing. So yeah now you might be able to get the info if you have the info from the tag on the diff, if it is still there...
off-roader
Expedition Leader
I'm pretty sure this would work but please correct me if I'm wrong...
If all you're trying to do is confirm what gear ratio you have, gather a few friends (4 or 5).
1) Park in a level/non sloping bit of tarmac like the parking lot at a local store.
2) Put a chalk mark on your rear drive shaft near the rear u-joint (one at the rear diff) & on rear tire so you can easily count the number of times both of them rotate.
3) Have a couple of friends push your rig forward for 1 full tire rotation while you look underneath and count the number of revolutions the driveshaft makes.
4) If it turns almost 5 times then it's a 4.875 r&p gearset. If it turns a little over 4.5x then you have a 4.625 r&p gearset.
If all you're trying to do is confirm what gear ratio you have, gather a few friends (4 or 5).
1) Park in a level/non sloping bit of tarmac like the parking lot at a local store.
2) Put a chalk mark on your rear drive shaft near the rear u-joint (one at the rear diff) & on rear tire so you can easily count the number of times both of them rotate.
3) Have a couple of friends push your rig forward for 1 full tire rotation while you look underneath and count the number of revolutions the driveshaft makes.
4) If it turns almost 5 times then it's a 4.875 r&p gearset. If it turns a little over 4.5x then you have a 4.625 r&p gearset.