here's my problem: its my driven gear from my VSS. it doesn't look like normal wear to me.. if it is let me know.. if not, what could possibly cause this kind of damage?

 

Well, you'd probably have some bind somewhere or some pieces of whatever tried going through the gears. The teeth look like they are fully broke off which would at least make me think there isn't a contact issue causing the gears not to mesh well. I would think that something tried going through the gears and broke the teeth. What does the drive gear on the output shaft look like?

 

its perfect.. not a broken tooth anywhere

 

Seeing the drive gear would be interesting.

JamesC

 

the drive gear is fine.. i believe they're metal so the only thing that would really cause a need to change that out would be tires/ rear end change.. i personally think that the person who put the gear in in the first place had not a clue what they were doing..

 

Plastic like the driven gear. If one's badly chewed, conjecture would lead one to believe the other is too.

JamesC

 

true but oddly enough, the drive gear is fine.. maybe the gear was like this when whoever put it in put it in.. maybe they needed a new gear for their other trans am and didn't like this one.. i've had the car for about a month now so yeah lol

 

The symetrical patern of the breakage makes me think that perhaps the wrong speedometer driven gear housing may be in play. there is a housing for 34-39 tooth gears and another for 40-45 tooth gears. the black gear is a 40 tooth gear and sits right on the border. What color is your drive gear and what ratio rear axle do you have?

 

If you have a 26" tall tire (245/50 R16), a 15 tooth (Grey) drive gear:
A 40 tooth driven gear is correct if your axle ratio is 3.27:1
But if you have/had 3.08:1 you would have had a 38 tooth (Blue) gear.
I have a .xls spreadsheet you can use to compute the correct gears. If you would like a copy, just let me know.

 

I'll take a copy.

 

Good eye, I noticed that as well but didn't think anything of it. I guess knowing the color of the other gear would be nice. They are color coded depending on number of teeth I believe.

You can also use the calculator at Bowtie Overdrives to calculate the ones you need.
http://700r4.com/speedoCalc/speedocalc.shtml

I have an 88 700R4 and I went from the speedo gears for 2.73 rear to gears for 4.11 rear. I did not have to change anything to get those gears to work. I made sure to double check tooth engagement because I also heard somewhere about that housing for different gear sizes. I'm running the largest gear of 45 that they make. It fit just fine. I am still off by about 5mph however because they do not offer a driven gear high enough and a drive gear low enough.

I guess I should add that I doubt there is any way to have the wrong gears in there. They are only in ratio to eachother. Your speedometer would be off, but I can only see that as the only problem unless like you said... "someone else could have put a broken gear in there". It seems like the only logical answer if one is good and the other bad.

 

i think the drive gear is like a light brn/yellowy color? lol im not exactly positive, but the whole car is stock save a flowmaster muffler.. its an 88 trans am gta, thats about all i know about it at the moment.. haven't really spent much time with the car just yet.. too much other crap on my plate lol

yeah id love to have that.. not sure what my axle ratio is though.. thanks for the info! ill pm u my email for the .xls file, thanks!