Whine still there...the shop is ready to give up and they are blaming the ring and pinion now. I'm so frustrated!!

And to make it worse the front seal is now leaking. Shop has had my truck for 10 days. WTF!?!?!

Gears have about 47 miles on them now with all the troubleshooting.

 

That sucks, post a thread and see if anyone can point you to a good shop in your area that has done gears on a dodge w/ no issues. You may just have to take it somewhere else unless you wanna teach yourself like the OP did. Out of 3 installs I've had they all made some kind of noise except for the factory setup. I don't think I ever found a shop that knew what needed to be done to get them quiet. Good luck getting it right.

 

The thing that I've found out with these gears, and probably with a lot of gears, is that once they go through a heat cycle, the noise may never go away. They have to be set up correctly before any miles. I've accepted the fact that the only way I'll ever get rid of my noise is to replace the ring and pinion. As long as the bearings are good, I'm riding. I can deal with the noise. I'm actually starting to think the noise I have is common. Not normal, but common if you know what I mean. I wish I could tell you exactly what to do and I've done a lot but I still don't consider myself an expert by any means. I wish you luck.

 

I hate to be the redneck to chime in, but when I setup the gears in my Camaro I just went off the pattern for the backlash and off feel for the pinion bearing preload.

I was putting in used 4.11 gears, on a used two series posi carrier with the 4 series carrier spacer. Everyone told me there would be gear whine because they were used and that I'd never get them lined up just like they were from the factory.. I've gone so far as to turn the engine off going 90 and I still can't hear even the slightest peep out the rear end.

 

Chambers are your Yukon's still quiet or did they begin to make noise also?

 

The yukons made a small bit of pulsing noise right after they were put in which turned into a whine quite awhile later. They do whine in a similar fashion to what areinike described his gears doing during cruise and light load, nothing crazy loud but noticeable. I went w/ the yukons b/c I had already tried 2 sets of motive gears, one was worked on several times by a couple different shops and progressively got louder and then melted in the diff. on an hour trip to visit relatives. The second set the shop could never get a good pattern and after speaking to motive and buying a special tool from them the problem remained. According to the shop motive never offered to send out another set or anything. So after all that I went w/ a different brand and they were able to get the pattern good right away. That was just my experience w/ motive, plenty of guys on here have them and have no issues. Also motive did refund my money for both sets, mostly I think b/c I went through moesperformance and he sells a lot of their gears.

 

double post

 

Sounds like more of an install issue more than a gear problem Chambers.

 

Probably, I went through 3 shops during my ordeal and gave up on having a perfectly quiet rear after the 3rd set went in. After 15k miles, an oil analysis which shows normal wear, and the whine staying the same I gave up and said drive it till it blows.

 

When I first had 3.55 gears put in my 88 Stang back in 1990, I had a guy that worked at a Ford dealer do them. ($75 at the time without having to pull the rearend) He told me since I was running N.O.S. at the time that he set them up a little loose with the backlash at the Ford max which was .012. He said that way I would have the widest contact patch under heavy acceleration. I ran them this way for 130K with no issues. It always made noise when cruising at a steady speed and a little when coasting. I just had the rearend completely overhauled again with new Ford Racing 3.73 gears, all new bearings, and new carbon fiber Traction-Lok clutches. He set it up at .008 this time and it is quiet as it was brand new with the 2.73's. The 3.55's that came out have a really good wear pattern on them and very little wear.

This is why I believe it is all in the set-up because all 3 sets of gears that have been in the car were from Ford, so all the same manufacturer. The noise is definitely annoying, but harmless in most cases. I got used to it after awhile and didn't even notice it until I put the rearend back in after the last rebuild and noticed how quiet it is now. About 500 miles so far and no noise yet.