breaking in new gears

[troyboy162]

ive read alot about this now. most talk about driving 15-20 minutes or enough to heat the diff to almost too hot to touch then letting it cool. repet for 500 miles...ect

the one interesting thing ive seen is 9 out of 10 say to just go wheel to break in the front gears. the thought process being that wheeling is slow and will not overheat the gears and damage them.

now my question is why is that not the way to break in the rear diff?

this regearing has cost a fortune so i dont see myself taking any chances but at the same time there's really no good way to break in the front gears and it seem to be widely accepted to just go play on them.

all ive seen is taking out the rear drive shaft and driving in 4 high for awhile. not very practical...but a possibility

[4x4mike]

all ive seen is taking out the rear drive shaft and driving in 4 high for awhile. not very practical...but a possibility

I have not heard of this but I suppose it would work. Just keep it cool and then change out the fluid.

[X-Tool Pimp]

I just run the P out of them and change the fluid

[troyboy162]

I just run the P out of them and change the fluid


ah so you just wheel them? interesting...any repercussions to doing that?

[4x4mike]

I may have missed it but who did your gears? If you had it done somewhere is there are warranty? How did they tell you to break them in?

[troyboy162]

i dont know what the shop will offer for warranty. the gears themselves come with a year warranty. i should be picking the truck up tomorrow. sure as heck wouldnt mind trying out the new locker and ratios this weekend at cleghorn!

[neliconcept]

if only you had manual hubs

unlocked my hubs but had it in 4wd and drove down the street for a while but slowely

did the trick it seems

[X-Tool Pimp]

Who did the gears for you???

[troyboy162]

Who did the gears for you???



it was A&A transmission. they are the ones a few hundred yards from "toys for trucks"

[X-Tool Pimp]

cool at least you didnt go to tft

[troyboy162]

cool at least you didnt go to tft

i walked in there to ask about shocks. i got the feeling they specialize in glamis style camper towing trucks. ive heard good things and bad things about them.

[Cheese]

On the rear I drove slow for short times with cool down periods and then drove farther and faster. At 500 miles I changed the fluid and called it good.

When I regeared the front with IFS, I actually pulled the rear shaft to get some heat cycles, then wheeled it lightly or drove around in 4wd on dirt roads.

When I regeared the front with a solid axle, I just wheeled it lightly going into and out of 4wd on the trail.

The problem with unlocking the hubs is there is no real load on the diff so you aren't accomplishing all that you mean to.

Good luck, especially on a DD rig.

[Bighead]

I used this as my break-in guideline (from Sonoran Steel site)...

http://www.sonoransteel.com/regear/card.jpg

I re-geared 5 years ago (?) and have not had a problem.

[Robinhood4x4]

The instructions I got when my gears were installed said any towing within the first 500 mile break in period will void the warranty.

Here's some instructions:

http://marlincrawler.com/tech/differential-break-and-care-information
http://www.trail-gear.com/toy-diffs.html
http://allprooffroad.com/images/stories/Instructions/diffbreakin.pdf

To break in the front gears is a little more problematic than doing the rear gears. For the rear, you just drive. For the front, the only way to really do it is to remove the read drive shaft and drive in 4wd like you said. That's why you've heard people say to just wheel it.

To break in my front gears, I just locked the hubs and drove down to pismo from the bay area in 2wd. I figured at least the gears were meshing although probably on the wrong side of the gears. Then I drove around Pismo dunes for a weekend in 4wd, but I took it easy and didn't do any hill climbs. I figured that was a pretty good break in.

Anyway, I'd say to do it right one should pull the rear drive shaft.

[slosurfer]

Thanks for posting this, I forgot that I need to change the oil in the rear diff as I just went past 500 miles since the regear. :thumbup:

[troyboy162]

got the truck back today. the advise the guy gave me was to be easy on them for the first 500 miles and to let them fully cool after each hour of driving.

i got the old gears back just to see what they looked like and really they look fine after 190k. i expected them to be wore thin, but they look good.

and man what a difference gearing makes! the truck feels right again. 1st gear in 4L is back to being super low.