The 1st thing were going to check is the backlash. What did everyone set theirs at?

 

Darklord,
Mine came with a tag on the pinion yoke noting the backlash measurement (.009" in my case) and the rear comes sealed with fluid already in it. After hearing of Stevie's issue, though, I think you're wise just opening it up and checking backlash and pinion depth at a minimum. I believe CANNIBAL recommended this early on in this thread.
You don't have to refill with any specific fluid to break it in to my knowledge, but it might be a good idea to stay inline with Strange's recommendation should there be any warranty implications later. FWIW, you can break in differentials, trannies, and such on synthetic - the process will just take longer.

 

thx fulton.

 

This has been an imformative thread. This has cleared up my mind and when I get a rear its going to be a Strange. Good luck guys

 

Ditto. I’ll be placing my order as soon as points season ends and I see a good sale. But I still have to decide on the options.

 

I've learned from this experience that backlash is not nearly as important as the pinion depth and the only way you can precisely check pinion depth is to pull the carrier out. The only way you will get a good contact pattern is by paying special attention to the pinion depth. In my case the backlash was stil in spec while the diff was sounding like a chainsaw. I would just double check the fluid level and install it like that. If you want to be 100% certain that it was set up right , then you'll have to pull it apart and at least check the contact pattern of the gears. That means emptying the oil and "painting" the gears. In order to find exact #s for the pinion depth, it will have to come apart completely.

 

we will be checking both. I still have some white contact greace that came with my richmond gears. So we will be checking pinion depth also. If its off we'll adjust it. What depth did you end up needing to go with steviez... everyone's name should be steve
Hay I see it says up state ny under your name... you near Rochester?

 

I believe we were bang on to the #s engraved on the new pinion which was 2.875.The original was 2.873 but it was too far away from the pinion by.006 which is .004 more than the allowable variance.
No I'm near Champlain NY. I actually live in Montreal but I do a lot of stuff in Champlain and Plattsburgh.

 

Thx steve.
Yea I guess your way up state.

 

Rear end covers

All was well with the new TA cover (for those that didn't read through 60-some odd posts, I replaced the LPW that comes with the Strange with the recessed bolt TA Performance cover that rodent has pictured above). No clearance problem with the PHR or upper PHR, looked nice... Then while I was under the car the other day I noticed that the little "eyebrow" above the fill plug on the TA cover had some residue on it. Turns out its been hitting the plastic gas tank. I had heard this mentioned in the past, but it was always associated with the Moser (of course now I had a Moser cover). With my car being lowered a little over 1.5" and with the car on the ground I could barely fit a finger between the cover and the gas tank. There is already some evidence of where the cover has been grinding on the tank although its slight. I thought to myself that the LPW cover doesn't have this "eyebrow" so it would have more clearance there. Of course then we're back to square one with regard to the load bolts hitting the PHR, etc.
Note that this is with the stiffer Hypercoil springs in the rear. With the soft Eibach Prokit springs I'd probably already have a hole in the tank. I can only imagine what the scenario would be with a 12-bolt and Sportlines or something...

Since I still had the LPW cover I decided to experiment. I found that the load bolts on the TA have the same diameter and thread pitch as the ones on the LPW, but the bolts for the TA cover are shorter. So I decided to swap the TA load bolts into the LPW cover. This worked nicely, but there isn't enough bolt length or clearance to install the jam-nuts with the LPW cover. The good news is that the clearance to the gas tank is now ~1.5".

For now I have the load bolts installed without jam-nuts and with lots of loctite. I have them marked to see if they loosen after some driving cycles. If they do then I will probably take the cover back off and install the jam-nuts onto the load bolts from the inside. I'll have to bolt and torque the cover onto the housing, torque the load bolts, remove and tighten the inside jam-nuts, and then reassemble. This is a pain, but it should work.

So, I guess in summary if your car is not lowered then the TA cover is the way to go for clearance. If, however, you are lowered then it looks like you either

A) keep the LPW cover and notch the upper PHR (not a good idea for a permanent fix IMO) or find yourself some shorter load bolts like I did.

B) get the TA cover and then take the grinder to it , somehow modify the gas tank or replace it with a fuel cell, or just live with it and see what happens.

I didn't try any standard rearend covers, but most of those that I looked at have the same sort of "eyebrow" as the TA girdle has, so I couldn't guarantee those wouldn't hit the gas tank either. So, at this point I'm wishing someone built a 12-bolt stud girdle with the recessed load bolts like the TA cover, but without the "eyebrow" ridge that it has.

 

You know whats funny. I called TA performance and asked if I could get the rear cover mentioned in the thread. They told me that they couldn't sell me one and that they only make them for moser. And that they only come in the Moser engraving. I mentioned that they did do a custom before for someone, but the sales guy insisted that they don't do that. Anyways, you could always buy one with a moser engraving.

 

Darklord,
They did one for me with the TA engraving. The guy I talked to there was Mark. Don't know the last name. I'd try and get hold of him if you want one. If they don't believe you I'll be happy to email you some pics of mine if you want.

 

I should be ok with the provided cover, I should only be around 400RWHP. Im going down tomorrow to see the rear end for the 1st time, and begin the install. The car has been at my buddys house for over 2 months now, 1 of those months was us waiting for the rear end. He lives an hour from where I live... over 60 miles, so the drive home will be a nice break in.

 

Be careful about driving 60 miles straight right after the install. Strange says proper procedure of the breakin is to drive about 15 miles and the let it cool down for at least 1/2 hr. You are supposed to do this a couple of times. (heat cycle the gears) Driving 60 miles straight may overheat the oil which is the MAJOR cause of gear failure. I would drive it 15-20miles and then let it cool and the I would repeat the same thing again.

 

Ok so heres the scoop. The rearend was painted and installed in 5 hrs. It went right in... It was actually completed before I got there. My buddy opened up the rear and looked it over. We couldn't check the pinion depth because we didn't have a press big enough to re press the seals back on. I drove the car for its 1st run and it was quite, only a slight noise around 50 mph. My friend then drove it and mentioned it was getting louder. After letting the rear end cool down for a while it was time for the run back to rochester... about 60 miles. So off the the gas station we went(by now the rear had a prominent whine), filled up, and then hit I-390 North. I had a friend driving in front of me at 70 mph because I knew my speedo would be off because I went from 3.42 to 3.73.
Now, I had to wait an extra 2 weeks to get these 3.73 gears because they ran out. As I'm driving behind him, listening to the whine I notice my speedo is showing between 70 & 75 mph... I'm like wtf, the speedo should be reading higher than that. So I pull up next to my buddy and ask him how fast hes going (I did this twice to be sure). He says 70... 75 mph. So now Im thinking they screwed me and sent me 3.42 gears. So after about 20 minutes of driving the whine at 70mph begins to dissapear.
I got messed with by some idiot in an eclipse once we were in rochester. He got the rear of his car up near mine in the left lane and hit so I could hear it. He then decided to get infront of me so he could be behind his other ricer buddy. So I switched lanes, dropped it into 5th, and roared by them... I didn't see them again.

So, shouldn't my speedo be off somewhat from the ratio change? Or would it not be noticable? I guess I have to call Tybrne and strange tomorrow and see what happened. Also, does anyone know where I can get 12 bolt cover gaskets? Do them sell them online or at parts stores? We had to make one our selfs to put the cover back on.

 

How long does it take from time of order to time of delivery?

 

2-4 weeks if theres no delays... the faster delivery being that you didn't have to send your backing plates in.

I also happend to do my 1st launch from 2K rpms today...
Time to take it to the track.