I plan on replacing my 2.73's with some 3.42's here in the near future. I was lookin at the Motive gears from thunderracing for 195. Are these a good choice???? Also how much does it usually cost to get gears installed??? Thanks

 

you know what you sould do go to gm and get gm gears they are the best gears to get and are also the most quiet

i would say to you that you do it yourself

if you dont have anywining in your rear right now i would reuse all you old bearings and races and reus your old shims

you dont have to re-shim all the time it is just to make extra sure its all corect

if you get gm gears and keep all your old stuff your should not have a problem just swaping the new gears in

i took 3.73 gears and a posi unit out of a rear with a bent axle and axle tube and swaped it right over to another housing and just used the shims that came with the 3.73 and i used all the same bearins beacuse they were all good and the races in the other housing where fine and i didnot even get a new crush sleeve
i swaped them and bolted everything together and put the cover on filled it with fluid and when for a drive and i will tell you what it does not wine at all

even in the richmond gears install manual it says if you dont have the tools to gauge everything and measure they tell you to reuse everything

i say save you money and doo it yourself

 

Basically when you dissasemble, anything that looks scratched, scored, blue in color........ replace.


GM usualy goes with a .035" shim under the pinion head. It's from personal experiecnce; recommend removing the rear from the car as the torque req'd to crush the sleeve can upset the car off the jackstands and have it well, flatten you (almost happend to me)

Just check the backlash and all should be good after that.

Good luck

 

Yea, I'm in the middle of doing a swap right now, and what I've read is that the crush sleeve requires 300 something #Feet !!!

Do you guys just reuse the old one or battle the new one in ? pro/cons ? My assembly is sitting in the garage, next to the car.

----------------------
BTW:
You'll need a bearing seperator to remove the carrier & pinion bearings, at least that's what I used. 70 bucks new, & hard to find.

Picking up a hydraulic press on Sunday, and I would say this is a good tool to have.

One thing I want to comment on the swap so far -> ****ing messy !!! grease everywhere !!!

Consider having a shop at least remove & install the bearings for you. What 20 bucks maybe. Thats a lot cheaper the spending almost 350 bucks worth of tools for this job.

Ron

 

Swapping gears on your own ?

I did exactly this to 4 different 3rd gen Camaros in the last 10 years...

I did it just yesterday too...

I re-used only the front pinion bearing, and both pinion races from my rear...I used the rear pinion bearing and shim from the donor gears...
Also used the carrier bearings and races from the donor rear, but with the original side shims from my Camaro rear...

Swapped out my 3.23's for a set of 4.11's and a posi unit...

I did the whole job in 2 hours,35 minutes start to finish, including the removal of the 4.11 gears from an S10 housing...

I didn't have to press ANYTHING apart, just disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled with different stuff...

I measured the crush sleeves, and re-used the thicker of the two...
They are easy to crush with an impact gun...
Remember to use red loctite on the pinion nut too...

Keep in mind, this is NOT the right way to do this...
I've got all the tools I need to do the job correctly, but wanted to try this and see if I could get away with it AGAIN...

This is the 4TH time I've done this on a 3rd gen Camaro, and all 4 times it's worked GREAT for me...

Nice backlash,(about .010) and quiet running...

I guess I'm just lucky...

Did it on a 1st gen Camaro back in '84 too, without any problems...

Not saying YOU will be as lucky, but for me, it's worked on 5 seperate occasions...

Good Luck !

 

It should be 250ftp. I personbally would just look for a junk yard V6 car. The V6's came with 3.23's and 3.42's only.

 

i say dont get a new crush sleeve

you dont need a new one

i just did it to about 30 foot lbs as resomended by a friend and ti worked fine

if you re use your old sleeve and torq it tomuch the rear wont turn at all

i used my judgement

i tighted it down where there was only a little bit of play like there should be between the gears (i just turnsed the pinion yoke back and forth till i fellt it was good) before you take apart your old rear turn the yoke and see howmuch paly there is and this will give you something to go by
after i was dont the rear was tight abut still moved freely thats what you want

 

You DON'T want to check the "play" at the pinion...

Backlash (play) is measured at the ring gear...

If you want to do it halfa$$ed like I did, but still be "safe", tighten the pinion nut until you feel a mild "drag" on the pinion bearings. This is called bearing pre-load. Do this BEFORE you install the ring gear/carrier assy.

Only after the pinion is in and preloaded, do you install the carrier assy...
You should use the same side shims that were originally in your car. This will insure that the carrier bearings are "pre-loaded" properly...

After you install the carrier assy, torque the cap bolts down, and check the backlash (play). Best backlash is between .006-.012".

Sometimes you may have to switch the carrier shims from left to right to get the backlash you need...

If you still don't have the proper backlash, you can get the shim packs from your Chevy dealer...

Just be sure to measure the TOTAL COMBINED thickness of the two original shims...
You can combine different combinations of shims on both sides of the carrier...
This way you will maintain the pre-load, but be able to move the carrier left or right to get the backlash (play) you need...

In other words, if your original shims measure .220" on the left, and .250" on the right, you have a total of .470" of shims.

To make more backlash, but maintain bearing pre-load, you could combine shims to give you .200" on the left side, and .270" on the right side....

Hope that helps...

Oh, and for what it's worth...

If you want to find gears and a posi unit, try looking at the 4x4 S10 Blazers...

99% of them had 3.42's, 3.73's, and 4.11's...

Many had posi units in them too...
There are WAY more S10 posi's out here than there are Camaro units...

Most ALL of the Camaro and Firebird rears have been picked clean at my local scrapyard, but there are TONS of S10 posi rears to choose from...

Only took me about 10 minutes of looking to find mine...
Just be sure to find the right year so the axle splines (26/28) are the same as your car...

 

When I used to setup rear ends in the 1970's & 1980's we used Loctite's Stud & Bearing Mount instead of the sleeve, worked very well and much easier.

 

I like my Richmond gears.

 

i can't believe you guys that reuse the cruch sleeve to save a couple of dollars, same with the nut. it doesn't really matter if you know some guy that did it with no problems, the big qualifer is YET, it's just a matter of time. the pinion nut tightens to around 25 in/lbs of preload, it doesn't torque to any set value and it sure doesn't torque to 30 ft/lbs. remind me not to let you guys near my car. listen to art he has a handle on what to do and what needs done.

 

Not to argue with what has worked for others, but I've always heard that you should not mix used races & bearings - and I question reusing bearings for a job of this scale. Bearings are wear items and are one of those things that I replace anytime I "access" them if I do not know their history or if I question them at all. Bearings, especially in a location like rear end, are IMO relatively inexpensive in contrast to the amount of work required to replace them.

 

i forgot to say that the bearings that were on the posi that i used where almost brandnew

 

Just do it right the first time. Rebuild it!!!! Theres no sense in cutting corners. Especially if you plan on owning the car for awhile. And I recommend not doing this yourself. Theres alot more involved than just swapping gears. I also recommend not using the same crush sleeve.
Cutting corners will just give you trouble down the road sooner or later.

 

i dont plan to keep the 10 bolt for verylong and if it fails i always have a spare

 

But anyways back to the topic. Is there anything else i need to buy when i buy the gears???

 

First of all, I think GM gears are the best. If your swapping from 2.73s to 3.42's and NOT getting a new carrier, then your pretty much limited to using Richmond gears, since they make 3.42s and 3.73s specifically for 2 series carriers. If you were getting a 3 series carrier, you could get GM gears for about the same price as Richmonds from SLP. SLP sells GM gears for $199

As for what else to buy, personally, I wouldn't settle for less then replaceing all the bearings, crush sleeve, seal and nut. All of these parts can be purchased w/ a "Ratech" rebuild kit from summit, and it will inlude pinion shims and carrier shims. Everything you need (except fluid and gears) is in the kit.