I thought this was fun. The RAW POWER of my little 2.8 makes me have to rebuild the rear again.
Check out what i found when I opened my diff:

 

Here's the missing teeth

 

damn, i feel your pain!

 

So whacha runnin' on the 2.8? Juice? Hairdryer? Further proof of how reliable 10 bolts are.

 

Looks like driver abuse to me.

Notice that the side gears are also trashed, from what looks like typical excessive one-wheel-peel, probably in the rain or on sand or something. That's what broke the R&P, was pieces from those.

Avoid abusing your car in that immature fashion, you'll tear it up less.

Those rears can stand up to quite a bit of power, which in all likelihood you don't have anywhere near too much of, if not abused. The LS1 people seem to get pretty good results out of them down to just about low 12s before they have to change them, there's no reason one can't last behind a 6-cyl.

 

Mostly likely the gears weren't setup perfectly. I doubt it's the "power" that trashed it.

 

Look in the circled areas; and note the heat bluing and burnt gear lube on the spiders and side gears.

Looks like it was murdered to me. It has nothing to do with power.

 

RB8, thats what happens when your out running a fire.

Looks like it took a few nutral drops too many to me.

 

Is it me or is that pinion gear look like its not setup correctly? Like its too low versus the ring gear. I went through many 1 wheel peel launches with my 3.23 gears before going to a SLP take out posi and had nowhere near that kind of wear on my setup.

My 2.73 gears on the other hand crunched to death from my then stock 305 TBI. All told, I was able to get the ring gear off the carrier, well half of it at least without unbolting it. That was one hell of a grenade at the time.

 

slade i don't think no matter how hard you tried no one could make a pinion gear set to low, maybe too far in or too far out, but not low

 

This is not hard launches. This is sitting still on a low-traction surface just spinning the tire. A typical form of amusement among those who don't have to pay for the damage it causes.

Think about it this way.... let's say you do that, that is, stomp on the gas on wet pavement, and let the right rear spin. Let's say the speedo shows 60 mph - not unreasonable even with a no-power 2.8. Left wheel sits still, right wheel spins. OK, the right wheel is now doing 120 mph, because it will be forced to spin twice as fast as the carrier by the gearing. Now look at the diameter of the side gears, which are the ones inside the carrier that are vertical; and look at the diameter of the spider gears, which are the little bitty ones at the top and bottom. The side gear spins with the axle, at 120 mph, and the spiders will be spinning at a rate determined by the inverse of the ratio of their diameter to the side gear diameter. The side gear is somewhat larger than twice as large as the spider gear, so the spider is spinning somewhere above twice as fast as the 120 mph spider gear. In other words, it's seeing, in effect, close to 300 mph under full engine power, on that little teeny tiny gear with about 6 teeth. The result is all that brown crusty stuff you see all over the small gears, and that bluish tint to their teeth. I'd bet if you pull them out you'll see that the side gears have blued their thrust washers where they spin against the carrier too.

I always cringe when I hear kids doing that to their cars. My children aren't old enough to drive yet, but it won't be long before they get there; I can guarantee you they will be buying their own rear ends (and new ones for their cars too) if they ever bring me a car on a hook with the gears looking like those, even once.... let alone 3 times.

 

ok, just so everyone is clear on this, I was being a smart *** about the power. What killed the gear was the fact that the pinion was set too shallow and only contacted the heel of the gear. No reason to get your boxers in a twist.

The wear on the spider gears I'm sure was a result of it running for almost 2 months without fluid. The pinion seal went bad before I bought the car, all the fluid leaked out and ended up ripping apart the front pinion bearing. When i disassembled the first time, there was no cage on the bearing, it was all in little metal shavings attached to the magnet.

Yes, this was abuse...not from general vehicle abuse or immature driving, but because it was not setup as intended and therefore abused by the physics of the gears. I had to get the car running seeing as it is my only form of transportation. BTW: the bluing that you see in the pictures isn't actually on the gears, it's from the picture, i had to take away some quality when I compressed it so that it would fit within the specs needed to upload them.

RB8, I don't know what kind of world you live in, but I do have to pay for what I break. I did learn the hard way that cars are not all fun and games and that you have to take care of them. I simply made this post so that people can see what happens when you don't have the gearing set up correctly and the importance of taking your time and doing a good job if you plan to do it yourself. I bought the car in WAY less than perfect condition, but with time effort and a little will to learn, it runs under it's own power. Next time you decide to call someone immature, please think of how you sound telling someone that the only way this could have happened is driver abuse. If you have something to say that might help me in setting up the rear correctly this time, please do so, otherwise, I would appreciate it if you would put a big circle/slash on the bashing.

Now...I have a rear end to attend to. Have a nice day

 

Ya know, somehow I was just sure we'd see something like this get posted. It's not at all about what a POS the 10-bolt is any more, is it? Have a wonderful day all, and learn the lesson of your choice.

 

Well it did look like it was setup incorrectly

Hey ede, isn't there a condition that the pinion gear can "walk" up the ring gear due to case distortion? So technically, with enough case distortion a pinion gear can be "too high" or at least not directly mounted in optimum position with the ring.

Either way, 10 bolts are not as weak as the topic would have people believe.

 

I guess with enough case distortion that would happen, but could you imagine how messed up the case would have to be for that to be noticable to the human eye - DAMN!!!

I have no complaints about the 10-bolts. If a 2002 F-Body can run the same rear with double the power than my car is putting out(~135 HP / 170ft/lbs tq), then I think they are just fine for what I'm doing with it.

If anyone knows where I can rent a pinion depth tool in the San Fernando Valley area of So. Cal., please let me know so i can get htis thing done right this time. Thanks...and sorry about sounding like such and ***.

 

invest in a good gasket this time too. They're not too expensive, and alot easier than silicone to clean up if you ever take the cover off again

 

Actually, the silicon isn't that hard to remove. A good plastic putty knife takes it right off. nice and clean. Also helps to hold the cover in place as I install the bolts. In general, it's pretty easy clean up.

 

umm...ok then....

 

I've found the stock GM gaskets seal up just fine and tight.

 

I dunno maybe its late but the contact patch (wear pattern) from what I can see doesent look terribly bad.