SS BadaSS

Alright, first of all several months ago I started to hear some bad gear whine with the stock 3.42s in my 98 SS M6. Eventually it got too loud to bear. I took my car to a performance shop about 2 hours away from me and got them to look at it. They told me I needed new gears. They replaced the gears with 3.73s and used a Ratech install kit. The stock gears looked fine to me, no visible wear or chips, but I'm not expert. After I drove my car back home, I babied it for a week and a half. Never went over 2,500 rpms and shifted nice and slow. The whine was totally non-existant. Then Friday night (the 1st), I was on an on-ramp getting onto the interstate and I got on it a little, but I was still hesistant. I wanted this rearend to last since i don't have enough money for a replacement. So I got on it a little and went to shift into second at about 4,500 rpms or so and whenever I let the clutch out, second gear was like neutral. So I let off and I tried all my gears. I could get the car into every gear, but whenever I gave it gas, all I would hear is a clunking in the rear. Me and my friend stopped and he looked underneath the car with a flashlight as I put it in gear and let the clutch out, the driveshaft turned and the input shaft to the rearend turned, but all that would happen is a clunking in the rear. So I had to get a tow back into town and to my house and now the car is at my house. I looked at the rear and found one of the inner posi gears split in half and some of the pressure springs had come out. The pieces of metal had chipped some of the teeth on the ring gears also. I know the shop didn't replace my posi or mess with it's internals, but I had performed a fair number of high rpm shifts on the stock setup. Then after they work on it the very first time I barely get on it, it breaks. It could be coincidence, but my car is five years old, has 45,000 miles on it, and I know the other owner was hard on it. The chances that it just decided to go out the first time I hit after this shop worked on it is unlikely. What do you guys think, could a mis-alignment or mis torquing in the gear setup cause the posi to go? Thanks for the advice. I've got pictures of the damage if anyone needs to see them. I can e-mail them.

TA/30th 1002

I turn wrenches for a living. There's nothing worse than having something come apart just after you've been into it. And then to have the customer start tearing into it just make the failure analysis process that more difficult.

You definitely need to get a hold of the shop that did your work and just be straight with them. Ask them what they would like you to do. If they're in business to stay in business they will be straight with you too.

Good luck with it ... Ron

SS BadaSS

I wasn't trying to make the failure analysis that much more difficult. I already talked to the shop and they told me to look into it myself and tell them what I could see. Since the shop is two hours away, getting it there to be looked at is difficult, especially when you can't drive the car. Thanks for the good luck though.

cantdrv65

iTrader: (3)

You can buy a torsen differential new with carrier bearings installed from SLP for $100. This and a new set of gears would get your rear new again cheaply....