Umm even in your worst case scenario it would be way wiser just to buy the new gears and put them have them put in seeing as you would be paying them the labour anyways.

 

There is a coating they put on the gears for storage, I know it will change the color of the oil as it comes off the gears during break in.

However, the glitter is filings off of your gears, there should NEVER be metal shavings, filings, powder, dust or any other form in your differential fluid. Take it back there before you are buying a new set of gears...

 

Looks like I'm gonna be spending another day there. Maybe I should watch over them this time, but I don't know what I'm doing so that wouldn't really help. I'll keep you guys updated, thanks again for the advice.

 

Well they took it for a drive heard the whine and pulled it apart and tightened something up and put it back together. According to my mechanic the pinion backlash is set a .004 and from what I read it should be in the .007-.009 range according to motive and .005-.008 according to dodge. He says that it will wear in/open up to the .007-.008 and I should continue to break it in. He used to build and race cars and has had his shops for like 20 years. He said the wear pattern looked almost perfect and that he wouldn't want to touch it b/c he might change that too much. Does this sound right? I'm thinking maybe the pinion height and backlash are off a little, but I have no experience w/ differentials.

 

If it wears that much in 500 miles I would be afraid. That is the backlash to be kept the entire life of the vehicle.
I say he's full of it and doesn't want to go through the install again. i doubt he even touched anything other than drop the pan to look at the contact pattern and re-used the oil he drained. Changing the pinion shims are the most difficult part of the job. They would have to buy a new bearing and tear the entire thing apart. Gear noise doesn't go away. period.
They F'ed up and I would make them do it right. Have you ever been in a brand new truck with under 100miles? There is no gear whine! Sizes of the gears make no difference. Brand names do, but Richmond is the only one that i know of that makes different compounds for gears.
Motive makes OEM gears for Ford, so they should def not make any noises or have any issue's.
A heat cycle is getting the gears warm by driving city for 5 miles and then allowing them to completely cool. Then getting them warm again and letting them completely cool. Then get them hot by mixing city/highway and let them fully cool. repeat. Now gears are fully broken in for donuts, 120mph...etc 500miles is so old school and it just gives extra time for break-in. If the gears have noise after that, they will ALWAYS have noise.
Also, allowing your gears to prematurely wear so that the improper install can be fixed is ridiculous because it can throw the contact pattern off once it's worn if it gets there anytime soon. Just my two hundreths of a penny

 

Well DirtyDogs post got me worrying again but as for any sparkling or shavings in the oil from chambers, I went and checked my oil just now (7am) and it was thick as syrup and on the yellow/golden side for color but absolutely no glitter, dust, etc. Just a thick goopy oil. So that's a good sign.

As for the backlash of the pinion that's something new I just learned . . . I'll be mentioning that for SURE to the mechanic when I take her in.

 

Well at this point I'm just gonna go the 500 miles and then get my neighbor (a mechanic) to look at the pattern when I change the fluid. If it's screwed at that point I'll fill it w/ the old oil take it to them and tell them they owe me a new gear set and free install, otherwise say goodbye to any business from my family. This has been said plenty of times but here's one more, if you're getting your truck regeared do your research and find a shop that does them a lot and has a good reputation.

 

Well my 4.56's have been on the truck for over a year now and they developed a slight whine right at 60mph about a month or so after the install. I have pulled the cover off to check things out and its fine, no metal filings or anything. I still have another 2yrs on my warranty for parts and labor from 4wheelparts so I may take it in later on when I take some time off and have them look at it again but for now everything is running fine.

 

I said earlier that I had about 5000 miles on the gears, but looking back it's actually more than 10,000 miles. So far, so good. Good luck with everything....

 

Yea I also saw a poll on dodge talk where most of the guys said their motive gears had some whine, so even though it's not ideal it may be good enough (it's not as annoying as my exhaust drone was).