[Tim Corcoran]

I have my car up and running now with the new US Gear 3.08 gears. It runs great and no more noisy gears. I appreciate everyone's help as this was my first time taking on this job. Youtube was also a big help if I ever have to do it again I feel confident I could have the same results. I had this tool made (see pictures) and a depth mic made to measure my pinion depth. Once you understand the process and have a way to measure the pinion depth it's not all that difficult.

[Formulajones]

Nice job Tim. As you found out, if you get the pinion depth as per recommendation and get the backlash right, the setup 9 times outta 10 will be quiet and trouble fee. The gear pattern is just to show you're in the ball park and really just checking your work. It may not always look pretty but if your measurements are spot on you're good to go.
Guess you finally found a gear set with pinion depth marked. US gear is a quality set, ya just pay a little more for it, but it saves you headache in the long run.

[HWYSTR455]

My brand new Moser 12 bolt has a slight whine, has like 3 miles on it. Hoping it will go away, but we'll see. I literally only drove around the block twice on it.

People still use the compression sleeves? Some reason I thought everybody uses the spacer and shims now, maybe not?

Not sure, but I think the helical cut on gears can also produce a whine the closer to straight-cut they are? Some reason I recall someone telling me the 'pro' gears are more straight cut and tend to be a little noisier than the regular 'street' gears? (but tend to take more abuse)


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[Tim Corcoran]

The crush sleeve eliminator, in my opinion is actually more labor intensive to install and to get the running torque setting correct can be difficult. I tried going that way and gave up and found using the crush sleeve was easy and worked out best for me. What I am finding out more and more these days is if you want it to be done right, do it your self. Not a lot of pride in workmanship these days and people using cheap unskilled labor to save money. Sorry about the noisy gears, I just went through that, I went to the expense of buying new gears and doing the install my self to get a quiet rear end. The guy that set up my new 12 bolt blamed the noise on the gears and I didn't believe him, turns out I was right.

[sdbob]

When I first did 8.5 back in 79 I got parts and advice from Tom Watt. He gave instructions on how to set up the right pinion shim and not to use a crush sleeve. My race car and my street SD both do not have crush sleeves. Just red bearing loctite. I redid an 8.5 with low mileage used gears and did this method. Lots of street miles a few trips down the strip. No problems yet. My race car I set backlash as close to zero as possible. Tom said a few burnouts and trips down the strip the backlash will increase.

[67drake]

Originally Posted by Tim Corcoran

The crush sleeve eliminator, in my opinion is actually more labor intensive to install and to get the running torque setting correct can be difficult. I tried going that way and gave up and found using the crush sleeve was easy and worked out best for me. What I am finding out more and more these days is if you want it to be done right, do it your self. Not a lot of pride in workmanship these days and people using cheap unskilled labor to save money. Sorry about the noisy gears, I just went through that, I went to the expense of buying new gears and doing the install my self to get a quiet rear end. The guy that set up my new 12 bolt blamed the noise on the gears and I didn't believe him, turns out I was right.

Exactly why I learned to do them myself. Hard enough to find a mechanic these days who knows how to do anything without a computer or just doing parts R&R.
I’ve used the crush sleeve and eliminators, I like using the crush sleeve personally. I think too many guys got intimidated by the torque it took to start the crush, then how easy it is to go too far. I don’t know, just guessing there.
Glad it worked out.