Need Help To Make It To Sft!!!
 

Alright well guys in preperation for racing on the 26th I have been saving up every penny I can to get my car ready for SFT. Well I finally got my richmond 3.73's and had a friend of friend install them for me on a weekend when his shop was empty.Well after he install them I drove home and everything seemed fine. Then the next day I was getting a whine on deceleration which means he may have set the pinion depth to tight or loose. So I call him and he says he will take a look at it on sat. Well on sat I cant get a hold of him then on sunday I cant get ahold of him and now today I cant get a hold of him. Also I work with his wife and she took off work all week. Which leads me to believe he is on some type of spring break vacation. Well I need this problem fixed or I cant make the hour drive to the park or the track I just cant trust the car to make it. My problem is that almost every dime I have went into getting this done and I cant afford to pay someone else to fix it because They all want $300+ and thats not gauranteeing anything because they dont know whats wrong yet. So if anyone on this board can help me let me know. I will pay you anything that I can pay for any help but I really dont have much. I appreciatte any help or input I can get.

hey give me a call on friday and we can get them setup as best as we can if you want, im off friday. the only problem is if he set them up with too loose of backlash lets say more then 14 thousandths and you have been driving on them then you are probably gonna have whinning. the only thing i can suggest is that we see what the back lash is set at now , tighten it up a hair so you dont break anything and go from there. i can do all this over at my house if you want , let me know

Not much I can do to help, but I do have a dial indicator if needed for setting backlash. No magnetic base for it, but I'm sure we could make it work. It is on an aluminum plate base with some adjustment arms for repositioning the angle.

Let me know!
Craig

PS By any chance, when the guy built the rearend, did U do the grease on the gears thing to see where the gear mesh was riding on the teeth?

i was wondering the same thing, you have to make sure that the teeth are hitting correctly, im just worried with it being heated and cooled by being driven and broke in on the incorrect backlash and what not that if you re shim it to get the clearances tighter that it might make it worse. some gears that i have re - setup after being broke in got a lot quieter and some got noisey as hell. but i am willing to give it a shot

irocaholic, you are right down the tstreet from me anyway, give me a shout and we can try and get this thing fixed

DUDE THAT WOULD BE AWESOME!!! One thing though you guys asked about the gears being greased, well I dont know because I had to wright a term paper while the guy did it and I am really out of my element with rear end work so I havent even looked at anything. What time on friday do you think would be best b/c I am supposed to work,but I can sneak away for a few hours to get this thing taken care of for sure. Also I really dont care if the rear wines as long as I know everything is set up properly. I think the reason this problem started is because richmond has a specific pinion depth and back lash that you are supposed to set there gears up with and he didnt set them up that way because he didnt know that. I really appreciatte this man!!!!

If it's whining, the torque spec on the pinion gear (Yoke) is too high. It's the bearing. It needs to be about 5-7 INCH pounds, and you definately need a GOOD inch-lb. torque wrench to make sure you're not changing that bearing in 6 mos. The biggest mistake made is they tighten the yoke with an impact, and don't bother to check the propoer torque, which is virtually NOTHING......let alone using an impact. I can tell you this because of personal experience. Some idiot f*cked up my pinion bearing by tightening it with an impact. Since we all live in Katy, and I have a Blue Point in.-lb. torque wrench, e-mail me and I'll help out.

Even though I am not very experianced in setting up a rear end, in checking into the subject because I thought my posi carrier was giving it up (that's another story!) I have learned that if the gears are new, U can readjust the mesh without any ill effects as long as the gears have not "worn in a wear pattern".

Even if they have as long as it 's not real deep into the meat of the gear, U can readjust. What happens is when U readjust it it starts meshing in an area that has not worn down yet, but (from what I'm told) after it wears and catches up to the area already worn, to where it is about even, if U readjust it again after that happens, it will be OK.

When I used to race circle track stuff, lots of guys would get a rear end out of a junker, readjust it before installation and if they did not go back and readjust it again, they would have yrouble. If they did readjust it again after it wore in, they did not.

PM's have been sent to each of you.

i agree with barry, did they reuse your pinion bearing or install a new one? i think the biggest problem in setting up rearends comes from the preload on the pinion due to lack of experience. i have had to screw up a few in my day to learn. i want to hear what it is doing and what the sound is like, if it is a richmond they tend to squeal more then some other brands especially the gm gears which imo of the gm 10 bolt is the best option on gears. but like barry said if it is wearing in a part that will not effect a adjustment then we should be able to quiet it down, but if it is wearing too deep then i dont know we will have to use the yellow paint on it to see where the gears are riding to be able to tell what the problem is.

well he came over and we checked the pattern on the gears and the backlash and they both semmed fine. changed the fluid and found out the guy before had stripped the filler nut so that was a biatch but got it done and called irocaholic and he said it was running a little quieter with the new lube and he was happy with the piece of mind although he has some issues with the guy on the install but we got-r-done:thumbsup:

Yes we did Get-R-Done. Thanks again jay.:thumbsup:

:thumbsup:

Damn, I wish I knew that Extremerirocz knew how to install gears. Im ended up having mine done at Bumbera performance on hwy6. They are doing it now, today, and are charging $500. Seems a little steep but they are a performance shop so I guess I should avoid any problems like the one mentioned in this thread. They called me today and said they would do it, but the stock rear end might break with the sticky tires and HP Im running.

I don't know wether they were just concerned or wanted to sell me a Moser rear end or something.

dammmmmmmmmmm 500 bux:eek: , is that with you supplying the gears or them supplying the gears? because if you supplied the gears and are paying install.........dammmmmmmmmmmm

Most normal garages won't do that stuff, so they figure they can charge a lot and get away with it. They've always been high........and expensive.:D

I bought the richmond gears and installation kit from Jegs separately. This does include changing the bearings too, but it still seems a little high. I don't have the tools to change the bearings, press etc. This place is a PERFORMANCE shop, and I see a lot of older hot rod guys (like me) there, so I guess they are kind of an upscale performance shop. Still I hate to just piss money away for anything.

especially when you can press them on and set them up in about a hour and a half, that calculates to 320$ a hour labor charge. everytime ive gone to bumberas for race gas or what not they have always seemed extremely pricey at best. they quoted me 800$ to change a clutch in my 2000 6speed ta. i said that s cool and subsequently decided to bite the bullit and spend the 3 hours it took me in my garage to change it. i guess they have been around so long and have a rep to where they figure most people will just pay their price no ?'s asked, but most performance shops i know do the whole install with the gears included for around 500$ , even mti only charges 600$ the last time i checked