Gear noise

[ZForce1]

For those of you who have swapped the infamous 10 bolt in favor of a 12 bolt, how much noisier are the aftermarket gears (which have less nickel making them louder)? Loud whine on the highway would be annoying, but I haven't had a chance to ride in a Fbody first hand to experience the difference.
Thanks

[Z ROADSTER]

Every single thread I've read where someone has replaced their 10-bolt with something stronger , they either start howling right away or just shortly after a couple banzi starts red line balls to the wall, side steppin the clutch hole shots ! ! !
Not exactly what a street cruiser wants or would put up with for very long .

[ZForce1]

Thanks, I think I'm going to just get some aftermarket axles that are stronger than stock, and a girdle. I might put in slightly lower gears, but still ok on the highway. This has been and always will be a street car seeing alot of highway use. It will stand up to what I put it through I think.

[Midnight02]

Bump for this one...I'd like to hear a few more opinions on this one. I'm at the point where I would like to start looking into swapping a stronger rear end after the heads/cam install and certainly want to weigh the pros and cons of the various alternatives.

[dlbrando]

do a good install on the gears and they will not whine after the break in period. They will almost always whine some during the break in period. You can get OE gears and they will whine some while being broken in. Proper preload and backlash, and set up a good pattern before shutting the case, it is well worth the time to take it back apart and shim it where necessary than to deal with a wear pattern that isnt quite right.

[Jays00ss]

I have a 9" for this very reason. Again I will quote Bob at Epp.

"Put a 12 bolt into a early Chevelle, Nova, Camaro, etc and you can beat the crap out of it, and not hurt anything. Put one into one of our cars with a torque arm, make a couple 4000 to 5000 dragstrip launches, and I can just about guarantee you'll pick up gear noise. If it is a drag only car, you'll never know or care about the gear noise. Drive your car home from the track, and the noise will drive you nuts. I feel the torque arm stresses the 12 bolt housing, causing distortion. We have never seen this happen with the 9 inch housing.


Exotic Performance Plus strongly recommends the Moser nine inch. This rear is even tougher than the Moser 12 bolt, and the horsepower of the late model F Body cars keeps escalating every year, which requires a very strong rear. With the recent introduction of the 6.2L GM aluminum block and the excellent flowing 6.2 litre heads, the horsepower of these cars is going to just keep climbing at a very fast pace.The nine inch will handle the power, plus we prefer the way the torque arm is bolted to the nine inch in the same way the oem rear-end is attached. (This is the only good thing about the stock 10 bolt...) The Moser 12 bolt uses four short bolts to attach the torque arm, and they have a habit of loosening up, even when loc-tite is used. Why the nine inch is stronger than the 12 bolt. The 9-inch has an internal rear-pinion support that also supports the gear end of the pinion to limit gear deflection under high torque loads. This seems to be the major reason why the 9 inch doesn't start whining after high rpm clutch dumps, when the 12 bolt will pick up noise.The 9-inch locates its pinion gear lower on the ring gear to improve tooth contact, than the 12 bolt does.The 9-inch has a 0.125-inch larger ring-gear diameter and internal pinion support than the 12 bolt does. This is not much of a difference, but it is worth noting."

[ZForce1]

Good info. I would really like to avoid loud gear wine if I could. If I start having a problem with the 10 bolt, I believe I'd go with a 9" instead of the 12 bolt because they seem to be quieter. If my car was mostly for drag racing, it wouldn't matter. I'd never have to worry about the rear end again, and I could change gears easy if I wanted to.