mozmale

Alright, for a while now my rear end has been making some unpleasant niose, i have richmond 342's in it... by the way this car was a bone stock z28 convertable with an automatic and 273's a few years ago. So i did a fluid change and i tried my best not to screw up the RTV seal ( I ******* hate RTV!!!, DO IT RIGHT!). Obviously that didnt work out for my i had a nice slow drip from teh diff, so when i got paid i went and bought some more fluid, slip additive, and a GASKET as god intended. while scooping out some fuild from the bottom of the diff i felt a nice solid sharp chunk of gear... it was from my pinion, and yes i saw the tooth missing from the pinion. i have heard that if you ride the car hard then these diffs (10 bolts) will "gernaded", however im not so sure im making that kind of power. The mods on this car are as follows. Fast 102 intake/92 TB, MSD coils (waste of money), Richmond 342's (while car was automoatic) underdrive pulley, SLP catback, Texas speed 1-7/8s long tubes with ORY, T56 swap, LS6 clutch (nothing special but nice) Tunning done as well, kinda had to after the t56 swap, all free mods done and that is it. when it was dyno'ed it was making 325 to the wheels with 335 torque and that was before the TSP Headers and ORY, so who knows where its sitting now. The gears were "professionally installed" by four wheel parts in Hawaii, and for those fortunate ones who have not had the displeasure of meeting the inhabitants of those islands, first off im jealous of you, second they have terrible work ethic and practices, but i was on an island and i didnt have much of a choice. right from the begining the gears had a whine. From what i understand Richmond are supposed to be the strongest gears out there which is unfortunate. Now for all you who would respond to this with the ford nine inch solution, know that i am aware of that. i wish i had the money. But im not going to act on this until i know what caused my gears to break. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated fellas

Big Al

iTrader: (1)

What caused them to break is anyone's guess. What's important is what are you going to do about it? If "chunks" of gears are in the oil, then all the bearings need to be closely inspected. The new gearset needs to be installed correctly. It's going to cost a lot of money to have it repaired. When it's all brand new again it's still going to be a weak rear end. I would suggest you ask for recommendations on where to go from here. If you just clean all the junk out of it as best you can, replace the fluid, and drive it like it was made of glass you may get some use out of the car while you decide.

Second best thing is forget the 3.73's and just find a used complete rear axle and put it in. That's the lowest cost "fix" from where you are.

Al 95 Z28

mozmale

Big Al, i appreciate your response. But what im looking for are most common reasons a rear end would break. like shotty installs, clutch dumps, too much power, fluid never being changed after initial install.. what im trying to do is narrow down what could have happended and make my move from there. Im fairly ignorant when it comes to diffs, so why would a high powered car not twist the drive shaft before breaking solid gears?

FirstYrLS1Z

iTrader: (4)

clutch dumps,too much traction,6speeds are notorious for destroying little 10 bolts.

SladeX

I broke the spider gears in my diff leaving the car in first going down a circular loop exit of a parking garage. Took only a month of daily exits like that then "snap" and the small gears broke from the weight of the car vs the engine compression. 10 bolts are made of glass!

mozmale

It seems to be a real hit or miss type of deal with these tens. Some say they can last, others say they are terrible, some say "drive they car easy and they will last forever" .... Who does that? if i wanted to drive the car easy i would have left the automatic in it! and left it stock, hell if i wanted to drive it like an grandma i would have bought a honda, but as it turns out i have self respect. So it looks like my car will be down for a while. Gonna go with the strange 12, since i have heard a few rough stories about moser... donations anyone? :-)