The guy that i bought my car from put 373 gears in the rear before he sold it to me. They make a loud whining noise now, and I didn't know if it was supposed to.
Anyone have any thoughts on why this is, or is it supposed to be like that?

 

its probably one of three things and it kind of depends on how loud it is to determine whats wrong without taking the rearend apart.

the gears probably werent set up just right. theyre not loaded across each other at the right angle which is causing an uneven load and noise. this isnt good cause if you put a bunch of stress on it (hooking hard) itll probably tear some teeth off the pinion.

if its not too loud, it might just be the gear. aftermarket gears have a higher nickel content to strengthen them which can make them a little whiney. mine whine a little bit and i was there to confirm they were set to exact specs from Strange. just get some long tubes and drown out the noise

another thing it could be is that you need some limited slip additive in the rear end casing. i dont see anyone that is the least bit experienced with gears forgetting to add LSD additive to the rear end fluid, but i guess shit happens sometimes. pull the cover off the rear end and drain the fluid, look for any cracked gear teeth or metal shavings in it. replace the cover gasket and refill with the right mixture of rear end fluid and limited slip additive.

hope that helps

 

did he put oil in it?

 

I ride with him sometimes...and it's LOUD.... he'll fill in with more.

 

thanks that does help. I'll check that out



I'm not sure of anything he did, he seemed to have done good work ( it was his car) but he can be unreliable at times.

 

very loud
not so much going slow, but if i get into fifth gear, you can't hear shit in the back seats.

 

haha he'd have a puddle of molten steel for a rear end if he did forget the oil

and its kinda normal to hear a little bit of whine at a low rpm / high speed. like in my car the noise level in 6th gear doing 70mph is about as loud as a person sitting in the back seat humming quietly. if it sounds like youve got a woman screaming her guts out, that might be a problem thats kind of a tricky thing to fix though. its gonna require the gears coming out and going in (~$200 labor) and another gear (~$130) that will still probably make some noise, so think real hard about just how annoying it is before getting dedicated to fixing it

EDIT - if you do end up having it replaced, buy an install kit with new bearings, a new race, new gaskets and new shims. it's worth the $100

 

I think pinion depth can have an effect also.

 

What kind of car?

 

lol yes pinion depth is like 70% of a proper rear-end assembly. thats what i meant by the load isnt set evenly. and youre not just gonna fix that with some wrenches and a feeler gauge. if the pinion depth is not perfect and it is not shimmed perfectly, bye bye gear teeth.