What is involved with changing rearend gears in 1985 S10

I have a 1985 S10 pickup rearend under the roadster pickup. The gear ratio appears to be somewhere around 3.08:1 . This is great for around town and highway driving, but lacks the "snap" that I would like to have when leaving a red light. I have never used a Chev rearend before, and so I am wondering A---are there more suitable ratios available as a "wrecking yard" item, and B-what all is involved with changing the gearset. This rearend is not split on the pinion side like the Ford rearends I have worked with in the past---It seems that everything must be removed on the side opposite of the pinion shaft where the bolt on cover is.

Changing ring and pinion is not too bad but it is much easier if the rear axle is on the bench rather than laying under the car.

You will need four specific tools, a regular lb-ft torque wrench, a lb-in torque wrench a bearing spreader, and a dial indicator. You should be able to find instructions on the web (rather than drag thru them here).

When you buy a ring and pinion, also buy a new crush sleeve. A crush sleeve sets the pinion depth.....the sleeve is a tubular spacer designed to collapse when an axial load is applied. Since your old crush sleeve is already "crushed", you cannot expand it to start over. The crush sleeve takes the place of shims found on Dana pumpkins. Crush sleeves were invented so, at the factory, they didnt have to disassemble the pinion to add/subtract shims..
....they could turn the pinion nut until the right "crush" was achieved. It saved time.

If in doubt, use new bearings on the carrier and pinion. You will have to press them on hence the bearing spreader to pull the old ones off. Your local auto machine shop can probably do the pull/press for you. Do not pound the bearings on with a hammer!!

I think that Drivetrain Direct or Randy's Ring and Pinion have setup instruction sheets that put it in simple words. On the bench, you should be able to change the ring and pinion in about 3 hours.

mike in tucson

If there is a posi, and a lower ratio available, and you didn't modify the housing, one option might be to buy a complete axle from a wrecking yard. It may save some $. You can swap your brakes out, if they are rebuilt.

The housing is modified in a large way, as I have welded coil spring pockets and 4 bar mounts and a Panhard rod to the housing that is now installed. As far as working under the car as opposed to "on the bench", yeah, your right---its a pain. I was curious about the rearend gear change, but right now gasoline is selling for $4.28 a gallon in Ontario, so I probably won't do anything that will increase my gasoline consumption.