Gear (whine)????

**migueelw** · 09-10-2008, 09:05 AM

I'm replacing my gears, and the shop that's doing the work said for me to take it easy for approx 200 miles so that the gears won't have a loud whine.

My questions are, if the gears are in oil why would they whine?

What does driving about 200 miles do to them?

Are there gears that whine louder than other?

**jcws6** · 09-11-2008, 11:37 AM

Even though the gears are in oil, the metal composition of the gears, the way the faces of the gears are cut, and the way the faces of the ring and pinion gears mesh together affect the sound. If you bang two different hammers on two different metals, you get two different sounds. That's pretty similar to what's going on here.

The 200 mile light driving is the break in period. You're basically heat-cycling the gears to make sure everything sets together properly and the faces mesh the way you want them to. Some people might tell you this is unnecessary, but it's only 200 miles, so why chance it?

Some gears are notorious for whining - Richmond gears are a perfect example. Motive Performance gears and AAM (GM's gear OEM) are probably the quietest you'll find. Also, with a higher ratio (4.10), it's damn near impossible to get the gears silent in a GM 10-bolt because of the size of the teeth.

**vbcamaro89** · 09-11-2008, 11:57 AM

i put yukons in mine and they told me they will whine because the material of the gears is more solid or something like that than the factory gears gm puts in the 10 bolt....mine is just a slight whine very faint but gets a lil louder when i let off the gas but the pros said it is normall so im going to liesten to them they are the experts i guess

**jcws6** · 09-11-2008, 12:09 PM

Coincidentally, one of Yukon's suppliers is AAM (same as GM's OEM). Some GM/Pontiac magazine did a 10-bolt rebuild using Yukon gears from Randy's Ring & Pinion, and had nothing but good things to say about them.

But, yeah, a little whine is normal - especially on deceleration. No setup is 100% perfect.

**migueelw** · 09-11-2008, 05:13 PM

Thanks for the explanation but now that raises another question?

Why don't factory gears whine since all gears are essentially performing the ssame function?

Originally Posted by jcws6

Even though the gears are in oil, the metal composition of the gears, the way the faces of the gears are cut, and the way the faces of the ring and pinion gears mesh together affect the sound. If you bang two different hammers on two different metals, you get two different sounds. That's pretty similar to what's going on here.

The 200 mile light driving is the break in period. You're basically heat-cycling the gears to make sure everything sets together properly and the faces mesh the way you want them to. Some people might tell you this is unnecessary, but it's only 200 miles, so why chance it?

Some gears are notorious for whining - Richmond gears are a perfect example. Motive Performance gears and AAM (GM's gear OEM) are probably the quietest you'll find. Also, with a higher ratio (4.10), it's damn near impossible to get the gears silent in a GM 10-bolt because of the size of the teeth.

**jcws6** · 09-12-2008, 05:58 AM

The factory gear setup is engineered to be quiet. When most of us upgrade, we change the gear ratio, change the gear type, and either do it ourselves or get a shop that doesn't have the type of professional equipment that a major auto manufacturer does.

If your gears break and you take it to a dealership to get them replaced with OEM parts, I bet it'll be pretty quiet when they get done. But you won't really see any upgrade in performance with the same parts put right back in.

**migueelw** · 09-12-2008, 09:44 AM

Thanks

Originally Posted by jcws6

The factory gear setup is engineered to be quiet. When most of us upgrade, we change the gear ratio, change the gear type, and either do it ourselves or get a shop that doesn't have the type of professional equipment that a major auto manufacturer does.

If your gears break and you take it to a dealership to get them replaced with OEM parts, I bet it'll be pretty quiet when they get done. But you won't really see any upgrade in performance with the same parts put right back in.

**Z ROADSTER** · 09-13-2008, 10:36 AM

Mine had a whine so I had new bearings and aftermarket axles installed with the original ring gear & pinion . Ended up takeing to Chevy Land . They said I needed a new ring gear & pinion. Noise was just as loud . They installed a new set of oem axles and the damn thing was dead quiet . The manager told me it was because of the heat treated aftermarket axle ends (chromed) that was causing the noise . Go figure !

**hamburger68** · 09-20-2008, 02:17 PM

Originally Posted by migueelw

Thanks for the explanation but now that raises another question?

Why don't factory gears whine since all gears are essentially performing the ssame function?

the factory gears aren't necessarily quiet, my car had the stock gears in when i bought it at 30k miles. they produced a really annoying whine. had the rear end overhauled, whine was less but still there. had the gears readjusted and now it's pretty quiet.

**twoolley08** · 09-24-2008, 05:58 PM

mine is stock rear end and whines pretty good on the freeway, i just changed the rear end oil today so next time im on th freeway ill know if it helped it out some maybe

**666ws6** · 09-24-2008, 06:05 PM

My stocker 3.23s too had some whine. Nothing too unusual, but with windows up could hear it when cruising around 60-65 mph. Radio covered it up.

My 3.90 Motives now whine at almost the same speed, but a hair louder. I also hear them more on the coast side.

**hamburger68** · 09-24-2008, 11:47 PM

Originally Posted by twoolley08

mine is stock rear end and whines pretty good on the freeway, i just changed the rear end oil today so next time im on th freeway ill know if it helped it out some maybe

don't get your hopes too high, changing fluid didn't help a lot with mine...