I had a local speed shop install some 3.73 gears into my 91 Formula recently. They estimated $400 to $500 which seemed a little high, but I don't have the tools and I figured they would do it right. They had the car for several days extra to do some adjustments. When I picked the car up they said they could not get rid of all the gear noise. They said Richmond gears are prone to more noise, and also since I installed a Spohn Adj torque arm that was helping transmit noise to the body. They said because of the noise they were not going to charge me ANY labor. I paid like $140 to have some longer studs installed in the rear.

Well the car runs great, knocked almost .2 seconds off in just the 1/8 mile. I do notice some noise but the car is not a daily driver. Im a little worried I could have problems in the future. What do you think? I don't mind a little noise to save $500, but I don't want the bearings to go out in 5000 miles or something either

 

I have Rchmonds now, granted in a 9", but I still have some whine going down the road. If they got all the mearuements where they're supposed to be and the mesh lookd good, I would'nt be at all concerned since most cars I've riden in have some gear whine out back, been that way for along time and they're still going strong.

 

I run richmonds in my car and they whine too. I have prolly close to 200 passes on them, and they are holding up fine.

 

my 4.10's in my 7.5 are richmonds, and i notice a small whine outta them on deceleration, and some whenever i am cruising next to a construction wall on the highway (sound bouncing off the wall), but other than that, they have probably 10k on them, and several hundred passes.

 

I know I've mentioned this in other similar threads, but the guy I talked to at Moser said that 3.73's are louder because of the way harmonics travel through that gear. Mine are a little noisy at cruising speed but I haven't yet figured out if it is actual gear noise or noise magnafied by my torque arm which has the solid Heim joint.

 

Don't confuse gear noise with bearing noise. Two totally different things. As long as the preloads on both the pinions and carriers are set correctly, you should be fine.

 

richmond gears = noise & strength

soild heim joints = vibrations & noise

 

So your saying that bomberos(hope thats spelled right)didnt charge you any labor for your gears because they wine? Thats weird because I talked to them a while ago and they told me if I bought richmonds that they would most likely wine and thats just how it is. Wow you got off with a good deal bud. Oh and by the way I have the same richmond 3.73 kit you have and mine wine a little aswell and XtemeIrocz and I checked the mesh and its fine. Hope to see you this weekend man.

 

Its Bumbera's and yeah thats what happened. I guess Ill take gears that whine a little and Zero dollars compared to quiet gears and $500. I don't drive the car every day anway

 

If I remember anything from differential class. The way you setup the gear to mesh on heel and toe also gives strength and noise. If memory serves excessive heel gives your strength at the trade off for some whine which is fine by me in any book.