Rear End Whine 12 bolt

[ericsz]

Okay here is the deal, went to the track this weekend and noticed that the car was whining during deceleration. It has been faintly getting worse for the past few weeks and finally Saturday I decided to check the fluid level before heading to the track, only for me to find out that it was practically empty, the car sits in the garage all week and no signs of it leaking on the ground, it does sit outside on the trailer on the weekends. Here is the deal so I put 2 qts of Lucas Rear end lube in it, take it to the track and the noise is worse. I was able to win saturday night but was still worried about the noise, so this evening I pulled the cover to inspect the gears, everything looked just fine so i pulled the driveshaft out and TA DA.... The darn pinion nut had backed off, noticed it pretty wet around the nut and all that good stuff, so I tightend the nut back up, cleaned out real good then buttoned it back up, added 2 new qts of fluid and now the whine is way worse.... Give me your opinions? I understand that it has probably worn a new pattern in it, this is a Richmond Pro Gear (4.33). Do I .....

A. Replace all of it ( what I really don't wanna do)
B. Replace the Bearings and hope that fixes it
or
C. Let it eat

Thanks, any other suggestions are welcome!! Thanks in advance...

[Sean Cour]

Check the crush sleeve on the pinion. Sounds like that could be some of the problem. Did the car fall off in et at all?

[ericsz]

Actually the car picked up a touch..No dramatic changes at all other than the whine is worse now that the nut is tight..

[quickford1]

Sounds like your crush sleeve has collapsed put a new one in and reset your gear up. Also use some lock tight on a new pinion nut.
Rich

[buzzinhalfdozen]

From my experience once a gear set has been run "loose", it's all down hill from there. The gear may last a while hard to say however the damage is done. When the pinion bearings no longer hold the pinion in it's proper position the gear mesh is thrown off hence the whine, tightening the nut and bringing it back only to have a worse whine indicates that the teeth on the gears have been damaged. you have 2 choices....keep running it to see how long it lasts, or change it now. The downside to the first option is you will risk damaging more parts if the gear set jams while on a run, cars don't handle well with the rear tires locked, plus potential other drive train victims. My suggestion.... replace it now and save yourself head aches down the road. Joe

[Jeff Stout]

For me with a fairly heavy car and nitrous I have found when the gear starts whining on decel that the ring gear teeth are bending and its only a matter of time before breaking teeth off. I see it happening earlier with street gears.

[ericsz]

Scratch everything..Pulled it all completely apart tonight, Carrier is busted and the mini spool is broken in 3 places..Ordered full spool and c clip elims tonight, hopefully this will take care of it! Thanks for all your help!