GRAYPNY

Well I have been fearing the worst and it came true today. My gears have been making a clicking sound for quite awhile now and I had a rearend specialist at my dealership take it for a drive today and he said that the gears were bad. It's odd that with him driving the car and me being the passenger I could hear all kinds of noises from the rear that I didn't really notice as the driver. Whining, clicking and and even alittle howling.

My dealership is pretty good about fixing stuff under warranty on modded cars and that's why I bought there. They are going to see what they can do for me under warranty because I have aftermarket 4:10 FRPP gears and they weren't installed by the dealership.

The tech who has been working on Fords for 40 years said that Ford was getting their gears from China and that they were good for about 12,000 miles before the hardening wore off the ring and pinion. He said he has replaced lots of Explorer 8.8 rear gears.

They are going to try and find another set of 4:10's for me but I might go with a set of 3:73's for something different and alittle better gas mileage. If they aren't going to cover the gears under warranty I will probably opt to put the stock 3:55 back in. I'm just hoping at this point not to pay any labor at $99 per hour. OUCH~

kevinb120

The explorer rears were a whole different issue.

Rapture

Whew! sorry to hear that, First I thought you were talking about stock gears. I have Chevy friends that keep telling me to go 4:10s

kevinb120

Well who did the gears??

GRAYPNY

I had a local shop that came highly recommended to the gears. I just had a pinion seal replaced a couple of weeks ago and told the guy who installed the gears to look for unusual wear patterns etc. He said that everything looked fine but obviously it wasn't. Even though the shop has a good reputation it doesn't mean that he really knew exactly how they should have been setup and I have had a faint clink ever since day 1.

Anyone who does a gear swap, here's a word of advice. "Go to the best to have it done regardless of distance and cost."

zaghloul

I think the technical name is proctologist .

tom281

Good luck Rich.

pville piper

Sorry to hear that. I am taking mine in for the TSB on rear axel groan for round 2. This time it only took 2500 miles for it to come in and when it did it didn't start soft and then slowly get worse... It just suddenly re-started and at the old volume level that it had when I got it repaired last time.
What was your milage difference with the 4.10's over the stock 3.55s?

RRRoamer

I would be very surprised if the dealership would even try to cover the labor (let alone the gears) under warrantee for aftermarket gears that was not installed by the dealer. Frankly, if Ford gets wind of it, they WON'T be covering it.

There is a log of questions and confusion (not to mention a good bit of FUD) regarding warantees and modifications. But it is blatantly clear that if you have aftermarket parts installed and they fail (either due to installation or quality of the parts or any other reason), neither the parts that failed nor anything else damaged by the failure of the aftermarket part is covered by any warantee at all.

Good luck getting your ride back up and running. Having a wounded pony sucks!

TacoBill

Made in China???


Were yours the FRPP-M (Motive) gears?

My 'A' gears are made in the USA.

GRAYPNY

My sticker looks exactly like your's Bill. I am going to have the stock 3:55 gears put back in on Monday. I bet I'll miss the 4:10's but what the heck my gas mileage will improve, but the fun factor won't.

ttbit

It could be that the sticker was made in the USA.

Good luck on the gear swap Gray! The dealer replaced my 3.55s for some noise and it has been fine for several thousand miles now.

TacoBill

tom281

Hey Bill, that slap smilie should go to Rich.... for going back to 3.55s after having 4.10s! If that isn't the biggest case of WTF that deserves a biotch slap, I don't know what is.

C'mon Rich, get your ***** back.

GRAYPNY

Well here's the deal. My dealer is going to cut me a deal on the labor because I bought the car there. They won't install anything other than 3:23 or 3:55 gears because that is what is available from the factory.

The good news is that they will give me a 24 month or 24000 mile warranty on the gears.

TacoBill

I guess that's a good deal (the warranty part), but doesn't the Shelby GT (or one of these signature Mustangs) come with 3.73's? You can maybe argue that point.

GRAYPNY

Bill I'm pretty sure that the Shelby GT went with 3:55 gears instead of the 3:73's. It probably had something to do with the gas guzzler tax.

I see that you're ditching the K&N for a C&L racer. Your not far away from doing about every mod that you can for a n/a car. What's next, cams?

TacoBill

Maybe I was thinking about the Saleen/PJ that had the 3.73's.

Yup, waiting on my C&L Racer from Doug, I hope it'll come by next week.
Only things left are L/T's and cams, both are off my list for a CA car.
No way will I be swapping out those 2 mods every other year for smog.

What is on my 'future list' is an aluminum driveshaft and some BMR or CHE suspension stuff.

SyNRG

so is this due to a bad install by a shop or is it just 3.73's and 4.10's just don't last that long before they poop out?? i just need to be educated before i drop $$$$$$$ on gears......thx

RRRoamer

Hopefully the dealer will get the gears installed correctly. There is quite a bit of science and a bit of art to getting the gear mesh and backlash set on a hypoid gear set. The majority of hypoid gear infant failures are due to improper setup and not due to manufacturing defects in the gears.