Alright I just purchased a set of richmond 3.73 gears and had them installed in my 2 series carrier stock rear end. On my way home I notice that when I was deccelerating my rear end was starting to whine. I have been told by many people that this is normal when you using after market gears and not to worry, but I have also been told by others that if it whines it wasnt installed right. Well I talked to the guy who installed them and he told me he would pop off the cover to check everything out this weekend and not to worry he thinks it will be fine but hes going to check to be on the safe side. What do you guys think?

lol funny *** thing.... mine does as well 3.73's on a series 2 carrier... i am also popping off the cover to take a look i need to add a shim on one side of the carrier cause on right turns it whines more.... .... will let u know...

Mine does the same thing, Yukon Gears. Maybe it's just life.

Whining in a certain rpm at highway speed is typical. I would not call it normal. If pinion is whining on decel, the pinion is likely too deep in the ring gear. Fix it or it will fail shortly. Also, check the pinion nut. If it loosens up this can happen.

I would say the aftermarket gears don't whine any more than the stockers, if they were installed properly. It may be that they used a ring gear spacer on the 2 series carrier to be able to adapt the 3.73's, and this is a little out of round. If possible always try to use the correct carrier to the gears even though it's more $$$. If you were used to 2.73's and then you had the 3.73's installed, you might pick up on a little more noise since everything is spinning faster.

What gears are they?

Some aftermarket gears (notably the Richmond drag-racing ones) whine ALOT sometimes, and this is normal for them. They're a special-purpose part, made specifically for that one purpose (drag racing) where whine doesn't matter. Those particular gears shouldn't be driven on the street anyway, since they're not designed for it; their life will be short no matter whether they whine or not. They are made of soft metal to absorb the shock of a hard launch off a trans brake or a clutch into sticky tires without shattering; but since the metal is soft, it wears quickly on the street. You should use a good-quality stock equivalent on the street; Dan, Precision, US Gear, GM Motive, AA&M, etc.

If the person that set them up went for an absolute perfect contact pattern on the drive side, then they very well may whine on coast, because that side may be slightly out of perfect. That's one of the hazards of trying to optimize the pattern with marking compound. It's usually better in this model of rear to just set them up to their spec and accept the contact pattern you get; which will rarely be perfect, but also will even more rarely be unacceptable.

My car came with 3.73s stock. And of course, whenever I've replaced them, I've kept them stock. No whine. But of course it's a 3 series carrier.

I will atest to that, I went from 4.11 back to 3.73's and I could never get the contact pattern exactly the way I wanted, so I'm glad to see someone else have the same issues.
I should've pointed out that yes, the Richmond (and others) race gears will whine, and racers usually set up those gear tight so they don't "slap" but they should never be on a street car.

Well i have the richmonds and this car is used on the street so I guess I made a mistake in getting these. I didnt see anywhere in there description that they were made for racing applications. I guess I should have done my research. Oh well I guess. I hope it doesnt blow on me when I go to the track for our houston gathering on the 26th.

These guys are the source for all of my rearend parts. They're very knowledgeable and have never steered me wrong. Moser is another decent company. But IMO I still preffer Reider.
http://www.reiderracing.com/home.htm

Richmond makes both street and track gears. Do you know which ones you purchased?

My moser 3.73's make alot of noise around 55-65. I know they were installed corectly, perfect pattern, backlash, ect. The guy i talked to at moser said 3.73's are the loudest gear because the way harmonics go through it.

Ive had a few sets of gears installed on my car from a number of different manufacturers and i know a poor installation blew them out a few times. they all had a bit of whine especially when coasting from highway speeds. If they are whining on acceleration, lookout, cuz its gonna blow!
Mine got real loud whining and thud, thud, thud

Ok as it turns out I do have the "street" gears so that takes a little bit of worry off of my mind, but I still have to make a 30 mile drive back out to the guys shop this weekend to have him check it out. Hope everything goes well because I really want to hit the track on the 26th. Thanks for all of the input guys.

I just went through this on another thread, but here goes, anyway.

Firstly, all references to pattern, heel and toe, mean the ring gear.

Richmond 69 Series gears require that the drive side pattern be biased towards the toe. The gears are lapped in such a way that increasing load, on the drive side, causes the pattern to spread out in one direction, towards the heel. The coast side requires a centrally located pattern because it spreads out in both directions towards toe and heel.

If you set pinion depth so as to give a central pattern on the drive side, the coast side will be biased towards the toe, and any load will spread the pattern off the end of the tooth at the toe. Hello noise!

The instruction packaged with the gears clearly spell this out, and tell you that the only way to properly set-up the gearset is to use the pinion depth spec. painted or engraved on the pinion. This spec is different from pinion to pinion. The recommended backlash for the gearset is painted or engraved on the ring gear, and may not be the same from set to set. These two specs are arrived at by running the gears on a test rig and checking for proper pattern, and noise levels. So, setting up the gearset "the way I like to" or" the way my buddy likes to" won't wash here. Deviate from Richmonds specs at your own, or your gearsets. peril. If you have gross pattern errors when properly set to the specs, you should contact Richmond for their advice. They have tech people for just this kind of thing. Use them!! But don't be surprise if they ask you; if, and how you set pinion depth, what pinion bearing preload you set, and what differential bearing preload you set. Better have those answers ready before you call.

If there are any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Don.

hey colonboy i had a some 3:73's installed in my father inlaws demon and they are yukon and the whine like crazy but they have calmed down alot the more we drove it. i was told that they might have been a straight cut gear. ???

I'm pretty sure they aren't straight cut. I really don't have a noticeable problem with whining, except on deceleration sometimes.

Another question: When you turn the driveshaft from under the car, how far should you be able to move it without the pinion gear hitting the ring gear? Should it be tight, because I can move it a good 10-20 degrees it seems like before contact is made.

Colon:

When you are turning the driveshaft you are feeling all the accumulated backlash in the axle, between the ring and pinion, the differential case to the diff pinion shaft, the diff pinion shaft, to the diff pinions, between the diff pinions, and the side gears, between the side gear splines, and the axle splines. Kind of like the toe bone is connected to the foot bone, etc.

10 to 20 degrees of rotation is not excessive for the total clearence.

Don