383vett

At the last race of the season, I won the first 2 rounds and then had to trailer the car because of a crunching noise in the rearend. I pretty much knew that I had broken a ring gear. Popped the cover off yesterday and confirmed what I had thought. !2 bolts are not immune to breakage. According to my chassis guy and Richmond Gears, 450 mid to low 10 second runs is more than can be expected from a set of gears. I use Redline Shockproof gear oil which is good stuff. The gears showed no signs of burning or heat. Got my new gears set up yesterday and getting ready for 2013.

cv67

Title

That sucks but better than fixing IRS stuff!!

Was reading up on Melonite???(term) treatement from Crane Cams supposedly way harder than cryo treatment. They do rearend gears too.
Its on youtube-

Midnight 85

What is that interesting looking project in the background?

C409

.............. That's purty stuff ! ........... does it have the same disgusting smell like dino gear oil ? ...............

JackDidley

I was wondering that. Sort of nasty looking too.

bjankuski

Were the gears street gears or pro gears?

ch@0s

" C4 related?" was the first thing that popped into my head...but it is

383vett

I'll research that for next time.

My chassis guy always has projects he is working on. That is a 7 second f-body.

The stuff doesn't smell at all.

These were street gears. I was on the fence about whether to order street or pro. Talking to Richmond and my chassis guy, 450 runs is a lot of runs for any gearset. We stuck with the street. Also, to make my decision easier, Richmond is backordered on the pro gears until spring 2013.

Yup, still a C4 (barely).

WVZR-1

There's very little maintenance that's hinted when you do the "spool". An acquaintance always did two sets of clutches a season and sometimes just did bearings for the he!! of it. He was never a 12 bolt "fan" because of the lack of "mass" on both the ring gear and the pinion. Until I saw your snapshot it had been a very long time since I'd seen the innards of one. My first thoughts were my acquaintance and he would have said: "told you so, huh"! A 12 bolts at the time was quite "NEW" and expensive. We still built Oldsmobile and Pontiac stuff for most.

Next time think "PRO" !

You mention 140 runs and then mention 450? The 140 is on the most recent build of bearings and the 450 is how many seasons? All on the same spool? Your experience could be considered a hint to a "maintenance" replacement or closer inspections later in life on this "new" build.


If your 12 bolt was a pretty straight forward build it might be a thought to build a "back-up"!

383vett

Good catch. I fixed it. 450 was the right number. Took me 3 seasons.
I change the fluid (goo) once a year and that's it for maintenance. My rearend guy is a friend. If and when the gears go, he will do the work in 1 day. Thanks for the thoughts.

93Rubie

I'd say for the abuse that gear set is seeing, 450 runs is good. I'm a believer in Redline Products they fill my trans. and rear end. However, I'm not running the shock proof in the rear end. Maybe next time. Its in the transmission however, got the smurf blue going on.

gerardvg

That sucks man
Hope 2013 is a better year for you they say 13 is lucky for some

bjankuski

I am curious, what ratio are you running and what are your 60ft times? I thought you only had 170 runs before it broke, 450 at least seems more in-line with what I would hope for.

383vett

450 is the correct number of runs. My fingers aren't connected to my brain correctly. I'm running a 4.33 ratio. My 60's are low 1.40s with a best of 1.395.

CORKVETTE1

was you running a girdle cover???

383vett

Yup

GREGGPENN

I'm reminded of a 12-point "buck" bleeding out.


What will your next ring gear be made out of? I'm thinking Cryo-treated titanium-roentgenium alloy....with a little STP of course.

383vett

I've got a call out for some unobtaium from the planet Xenon. I hear that stuff is near undestructible.

mxnuke

I would say your guy who built the rearend is spot on it.thats alot of good runs you put on that gear.Pulling those 60ft times are hard on any rear end, i had a strange 12 bolt in my race car for 6 years with 2 sets of pro gears with a jerico 4-speed.I would let him build me another..good luck

383vett

Thanks.