Gears! Oh sweet gears!

[Joe K. 99 Zeee!!]

Just put my order in. I've been wanting to do this for soooo long.
Here's what's coming:

3.42 Strange Gears for series 2
T/A rear cover
Ratech rear end rebuild kit

The car has almost 100,000 on it so I might as well get that rear end rebuilt while it's being worked on.

Couple a questions though. What's the proper way to break the gears in? And when do I need to change the rear end fluid after the break-in?

Found a shop in Pompton Plains, NJ called Stage 1. Talked to a guy there today for like 20 minutes. The experience is there and they had a car of theirs in GM High Tech Mag.

Good-bye 2.73's...

BTW...board's looking good...

[Rob B (shoebox)]

Here is an opinion about break-in.

[Joe 1320]

You'll love the gears. I went with 3.73s and the car really woke up nicely. I have always put a couple hundred easy miles before really hammering it. As far as changing the fluid, I do that after the first 2000 miles. Never had a problem. Just make sure you add the GM posi additive or the clutches will rumble.

[Rob]

I was a little different When I had gears installed in my WS6 back in 97, I backed out of the garage, and nailed it out on the street! Came back and paid for the job. Drove home 20 miles or so and parked it. Drove to work and back, 25 miles each way for the next two weeks. Changed the oil to Mobil 1 and was done.

Those gears lasted over 50K miles and countless trips to the track. Never whined or broke. This was a 4.10 gear in a 96 WS6 Formula M6.

Just how I did it, ymmv.

[Kevin - Blown 95 TA]

You can fill it with 80/90 put it on jackstands supporting the axle and chock the front wheels (this is dangerous if not done safely) then run it in forward for 10 min - idle speed is OK - , 30 min cooldown, 10 min reverse, 30 min cooldown, take it on the street for 10 min and cool down an hour 2X, change gear oil to synthetic and add GM friction additive. Take it easy for the first few hundred and you're good to go.

One thing - the new aftermarket covers don't have a magnet in it, so you can epoxy one in there to snag the chips. If you can get a neodymium-iron-boron magnet, they are about 10 times more powerful than a ceramic. If you can't find one, you can get them off an old hard drive - stick the other one to your oil pan.

[Rob]

If you run synthetic, I wouldn't put any additive in there. Additive is only "cosmetic" for chattering. Its too slick. I've seen tons of guys doing the one wheel burnout.

I've never used it in any car that had limited slip. Just change the fluid every 15K miles and you shouldn't have a problem with chattering.

IMHO

[Joe K. 99 Zeee!!]

Thanks for the replies...

I'll be using redline synthetic, but I don't know about foregoing the additive. I'll talk to the tech there and see what he says.

[Kevin - Blown 95 TA]

I believe that Redline has the additive in it already, the others do not.

[Joe K. 99 Zeee!!]

Yup, you're right. I just went to their site and confirmed it. Ok, so no additive.

[Performin Norman]

I did that exact change on my 94 Z. I used the 2 series carrier and used a thick 3.42 gear. It was an awesome swap. Loved the ratio change. Have fun.