ok so...update.....after all the crap i went through, i finally got the gears in....now....no celebration yet....

so ..the COMPLETE install kit came with 3 different sized shims... .021 .030 and .034 THREE of each.

now, the 2.73 i took out had a .032 shim on it. the 3.73 had a .040 on it (it was used, still had the bearing on it)

so for the life of me, for a solid week + i was shimming. couldnt get a pattern that looked like the pics showed. no matter what i did, from .021 to .050 and all in between ...couldnt get a good COAST side patterm . i could get the drive side looking perfect.

backlash wash always set at .008

so i get fed up and call richmond and ask them for some help. it turns out...no matter what you do, you wont get a GOOD looking pattern off of used gears. weird. anyways, they said it was basicly best guess.

so i said, Fine...the stock one was .032 the 3.73 one was .040...im goin for the .034 one and slapping it togather.

so that i did, set the bachlash at .008, put a decent pre load on it....bolted it togather and put it on the car (funny story involving the drums, ill post it later)

so finally ...after 3 weeks...it was test drive time....with my Nuts in my throte and a shakey foot i eased out the driveway and up the road. i drive about 2 miles, and came home....

i didnt hear anything harmful....Now heres where the questions begin.

How loud is gear whine?

If the pinion was off to the point where it was harmful, Would i definatly be able to tell?

would it *feel* different?

 

you'd hear gear while with a muffer on the exhaust, not with open exhaust. with used gears you should of checked the pattern first before you removed them, if you were the one to remove them. i'd worry a lot more about having the measurements right and the contact pattern less if i had to chose.

 

Yea, I personally would have had the seller paint the set before they removed them just to get an idea. Most pinion gears are marked so you can compare the numbers and with a little math you can get a fairly accurate idea of what shim you need to use.
I'm glad 3.42's are found in every other junk yard V6.

 

well they DO make a lil noise.....i had to put it on jackstands and throw it in drive to even hear it though......its not loud....so im not sure how bad that is.....i heard to expect them to make noise no matter what , cause they are used....

like i said...this isnt too loud at all....its just a real low zzzzzzzzzzzz --not grinding sound---

should i worry or...let it be.....

i cant hear it while driving at all.....

oh and i didnt remove the 3.73s myself, i got em off of ebay heh

 

well...anyone??

i can kinda barely hear it while driving on the highway....

what causes gear whine?? pinion shim too thick?? too thin??

how much noise is acceptable on used gears?

 

Im far from a rear expert so maybe someone could fill you in a bit better.

I have been told that no matter what you do aftermarket gears make some (very little, but some) noise. This is due to the fact that they are hardend more than stock and because they have a slightly steeper angle on the helical teeth for more bit.

Like i said im not a rear expert so maybe someone could confirm this for you.

 

these are gm oem gears heh.....but like i said..they were used...so they already had a wear pattern on em...

im just gonna drive it...if the whine gets worse....ill yank the rear off again...oh well