New gear howl?

[WDW MKR]

Anyone run into gear noise with a brand new install on these cars? I installed a fresh 3.45 diff, purchased from a VA board member, built by Unitrax. Gear mesh paint was still visible. Unfortunately, I could hear the gears as soon as I pulled out of the garage and they howl like a banshee above 50mph. The low-speed noise has almost gone away with a few heat cycles, but they still do a bit of howling at highway speed. Do the gears in these cars require a bit of wear to quiet down or did I get boned on this deal? I still have the full stock diff to throw back in if it comes down to it.

Never had this issue when installing 4.10 gears in my Cobra, aside from some faint noise when coasting at low speed.

 

[dave6666]

The Unitrax break-in on my set was a few runs each of 20 minutes down the highway at light throttle followed by a complete cool down after each run. Then no hard driving until 500 miles of use. Did yours get done that way? No noise here BTW.

 

[bluesrt]

you got boned unfortunatly, ring n pinion not set up right, or was and got ****** loose and now out of spec.... junk now

 

[WDW MKR]

That was my opinion, but figured it worth verification.

The gears were broken in closely to what you describe, Dave. Noise was apparent before I even got out of the neighborhood.

 

[dave6666]

I would call Devin at Unitrax and ask ***. With shop order or s/n or some build tag info in hand.

 

[WDW MKR]

I've contacted the VA seller to see what info he has. I was supposed to receive the Unitrax receipt, but never got it. We'll see what he comes up with. Is there any hard identification Unitrax would place on the housing to identify one of their builds? There is some info scribed/stamped into the bottom side of the housing that I assumed to be factory... perhaps that will tell me something. I'll have to get under there and look at it more closely.

 

[dave6666]

Pretty sure they stamp their work. I think I saw that on mine.

 

[Paul Hawker]

When I had Unitrax change out my gear ratio's they installed a small metal tag with the new information on it. Should be on the outside of your pumpkin.

Agree. Best idea is to contact the seller and Unitrax to get this sorted out. Doubt anyone set out to sell you a noisey rear end. If it was fresh from the shop, the seller would have no way of knowing it would not be set up correctly.

 

[alwayscode390]

My 3.73's are as quiet as can be, but I am not sure the brand ---