New Member with 1981 C10 Question

[MirandaB]

Hi Everyone.

My name is Miranda. I have a 1981 C10 2WD SB, 4.1L straight six, and 4-speed manual transmission with OD, and I need some advice.

I bought the truck a few months ago from the original owner. It has about 65K miles on it. The cab is in decent shape, but needs new rocker panels and inner fenders. The bed is shot.

The truck tends to bog down easily, and to help counteract that I have rebuilt the 2BBL carb and installed a new fuel pump. The engine runs fine, but the differential gear ratio is still too high. I checked it yesterday by counting wheel revolutions x2 and counting the driveshaft revs, and it is approximately 2.75. I checked the RPO codes on the truck and there isn't any special code for the differential gearing on mine.

The rear end is a 10-bolt, 8.5 inch as far as I can tell.

Does anyone know what the other standard gearings are for the 1981 C10 with a 4.1L engine?

I am going to look at a used rear end for a 1997 Chevy 1/2T tomorrow. Other than checking perch centers and the u-joint dimension, can anyone suggest anything else I should look for?

Thanks,

Miranda