Gear break in?
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Post Fiend
Joined: Nov 2001
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From: Topsfield, MA
Gear break in?
I just got new 4.09 gears in the front of my d44 and I don't have the instructions anymore. What is the recommended break-in procedure for the gears?
Last edited by MustangGT221; Aug 7, 2003 at 09:02 AM.
Senior User
Joined: Mar 2003
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Gear break in?
I have found some variance in what gear vendors recommend for the initial heat-setting of the gears, but most all recommend changing the fluid within 500 miles and no rough stuff for that 500 miles either.
I have just been through some grief with the 3.70 gearset that was in my 57 (Ford 9 with trac-loc). The Moser ring and pinion was set per mfg recommendations, gear pattern was right, etc. - it lasted a whopping 550 miles. I don't discount that somehow we may have messed something up installing it, but we used the right tools to get the proper settings - so we thought.
Second time around I had a local guy replace the gears with Motive gears. He does a lot of the gears for the local racers as well as for a bunch of trucks. Here's what he told me to do (and I did it). It may not be what everyone does, but I did it anyway.
*Get some jackstands under the axle and run the car/truck in gear about 20-30 mph for about 30 minutes. Don't forget to run it reverse for a few minutes too.
*Let it cool completely overnight.
* Repeat this process again
* Change the rear gear fluid.
* Run the car/truck at moderate speeds <60 for the first 500 miles, then change the fluid out again. He did not recommend synthetic lube for this initial break-in time.
I know - seems like a lot of trouble to me, except that I know of too many folks around here that swear by his work, so I'm gonna do this too.
I have just been through some grief with the 3.70 gearset that was in my 57 (Ford 9 with trac-loc). The Moser ring and pinion was set per mfg recommendations, gear pattern was right, etc. - it lasted a whopping 550 miles. I don't discount that somehow we may have messed something up installing it, but we used the right tools to get the proper settings - so we thought.
Second time around I had a local guy replace the gears with Motive gears. He does a lot of the gears for the local racers as well as for a bunch of trucks. Here's what he told me to do (and I did it). It may not be what everyone does, but I did it anyway.
*Get some jackstands under the axle and run the car/truck in gear about 20-30 mph for about 30 minutes. Don't forget to run it reverse for a few minutes too.
*Let it cool completely overnight.
* Repeat this process again
* Change the rear gear fluid.
* Run the car/truck at moderate speeds <60 for the first 500 miles, then change the fluid out again. He did not recommend synthetic lube for this initial break-in time.
I know - seems like a lot of trouble to me, except that I know of too many folks around here that swear by his work, so I'm gonna do this too.
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Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 114
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Gear break in?
Agreed - also a pain for the Ford 9.
At least one smart thing that I did was when I had the housing narrowed (originally came from an Econoline van) I also had a drain plug bung welded into the bottom of the housing. So much easier to drain it now.
probably the only smart thing
At least one smart thing that I did was when I had the housing narrowed (originally came from an Econoline van) I also had a drain plug bung welded into the bottom of the housing. So much easier to drain it now.
probably the only smart thing
