I had a little gear whine on my '04 V6 M/T ... It was the factory 7.5" axle & 3.27 gears and I had the open differential changed to a Ford T-Lok. Car had less than 100 miles on it when I had the T-Lok swapped in, so I don't know or remember if it had any "whine" from the factory. Guy that did the differential swap for me is the best guy in town, so I was never concerned about it ... car had over 125,000 miles on it when I sold it and no axle problems due to the whine.

This darn '11 is too **** quiet and I actually miss that whine, only time it could be considered anoying was when I drove with the rear seats folded down as the truck cavity seem to amplify it quite a bit !!

Doug

 

My car has been lowered for about a year now, i also have a shaftmasters 1 piece aluminum d/s . I have factory 3.73's, no whine at all.. so much for pinion angles...

 

you need .008-.015 clearnace on 8.8" gear sets..015 will be a little noisy with 3.73's. .008 should be the setting the shop goes with. it can be pinion lash, bearing preload, ot pinion depth. i always add .010-.040 to the pinion depth when going to more aggressive gears. then set it from there. .008 will be very quiet. lapping can remove metal and cause noise, and require resetting lash.

 

whine is lash/depth related.