Ok, I ordered a set of Richmond 3.73 hears to replace my stock 2.73 hears in my GU2 Z-28. The mechanic called me up and said that the gears are whining pretty bad, and said that this is common when going to such a thick gearset and not changing the carrier.

Did I screw up by not changing the carrier and getting 3 series gears? He said he would take it apart and try it again, but I wanted to know if he's right or not.

Thanks,
Chris

 

Richmonds are usually some of the loudest gears for our cars with the odd guy who lucks out and gets a quiet set.
I had Strange 2 sefries 3.42's and they were loud also.
Motives are quiet but you need a 3 series carrier for them.
Got a Torsen takeoff from SLP a few years ago for 100.00 but I think they're all gone.
Someone said Summit may still have a few.

 

My richmonds whined like a 2 yo the day they were put in, after those pos's broke a few teeth I put gm motives in and it was night n day

 

Crap, that's what I was afraid of. I've read that having the proper limited-slip additive helps a lot, but since I haven't heard the car yet I don't know how loud they are.

So Motive gears are the way to go eh? Anybody know if Richmond would give a damn if their gears whine like a biatch?

 

Oh yeah, I paid $450 for the install (no carrier swap) is this expensive or average?

 

Richmond's are some of the loudest gears out there. And I believe $450 installed is a little on the high side if that was for labor only. I had a set of Ricmond 4.10's in an auto. If was a lot of fun while it lasted, but after a while they got REAL loud. This time I'm going with a set of Motives (3.73) and a solid pinion spacer. Maybe I'll have better luck.

 

I paid around the same price, but it included a GM 3.73 gear set, a SLP series 3 carrier, and all the labor. I would say that the price you paid was pretty steep. Plus the GM gears don't whine at all. I can't tell a difference in sound, but I can tell a big difference in how it feels.

Good Luck though

Joe

 

A gear swap requires carrier removal, the only addition labor involved in actually replacing the carrier with the gears would be pressing the bearings on the new carrier, so the labor difference between reusing the old carrier and installing a new one is very small. You are in CA so expect to get gouged on labor, but here in WI a dealer quoted me $350, with some truck places quoting $450-500, but if you shop around or have a club hookup and find someone COMFORTABLE and quick with this work $250-300 is not unheard of. Best way to look at it is 4-5 hous labor then multiply that by the labor rate in your area, I could see the labor rate at a dealer in CA being $90 which would give you the $450 if they set billed 5 hours.

 

Double crap, no it was $450 plus the gears and install kit. So at the moment I'm $750 into these gears. I guess if worse comes to worse I can just Dynamat the hell out of the ***-end of the car eh?

 

Wow, after reading how much some of you guys paid I feel pretty lucky with what I paid. A guy I know only charged me $200 to do my install and yeah, I got a Richmond gear from summit and it's quite a bit noisier than the stock gear, but so far so good with it I've had it almost a year.

 

I have Motive 4.10s put in and they whine pretty good but I still like them.

 

yeah...my bro had richmonds in his gbody, they whined pretty loud

 

My 2 series strange 3.73s whine some but not noticable at all with the radio on.

 

my motive 4.10s whine pretty loud too. But under about 40 mph they are pretty quiet. Also what additive will help quiet the gears down

 

I paid $100 for my install, but that's because the mechanic was a friend of mine and I helped. First time we put the Richmond 3.73's in they whined like hell until we shimed them more. They still whine a little but nothing bad. I talked with one of the best rear end/ performance places in NJ and they told me that due to the way Richmonds are cut, they whine more than other gears in our 10 bolts.