Rear-End Upgrade Plan, Sanity Check Requested!

[wpatterson9]

After reading through others' forum posts, I've decided to pull the trigger on upgrading the stock 2.73 rear end on my 73. Below are links to the parts and materials that I think I'll need:

Axles
Carrier, Posi, Rebuild Kit
C Clips

At checkout, I plan on optioning-in the Timken Bearings, axle bearings, and axle seals. I still need to figure out which wheel studs I'll need as well. Later on, I want to replace the rear cover but that can wait till the money tree re-grows. All in, I'm looking at about $1K for everything. Seems like a good bottom-line... I priced it out buying each component individually and couldn't come near to the same number.

I'm in uncharted waters so any experienced advice is certainly welcome!

 

[big gear head]

Looks like a pretty good plan except for the USA Standard gears. This is the economy brand of Yukon. The Yukon brand it the top line for them. The USA Standard gears are lower quality than the Yukon brand and may make noise. There is no guarantee that any brand won't make noise these days, but you have a better chance of getting quiet gears when you get the better brand. Also, when you upgrade to the Timken bearings you are upgrading to the Yukon brand installation kit over the USA Standard kit. Same thing as the gears, USA Standard is the economy Yukon brand. Don't be fooled, USA Standard certainly does not mean made in the USA. They are definitely not.

It's been a while since I used a 8.5 installation kit, so I don't know what ring gear bolts come in it. If the ring gear bolts have 5/8 heads then don't use them. They will cause problems later. Only use ring gear bolts with a 3/4 inch head in the 7.5 and 8.5 GM rear ends.

 

[wpatterson9]

BGH, thanks for the advice! I'll definitely change up the list with better parts.

EDIT:
@big gear head what do you think of the axles from RMS? are they as good of quality as moser or strange?

 

[biker]

I got my 3.73 gears through a local transmission shop, and the owner said he got factory GM ring and pinion because they are the best quality (in his opinion). I didnt realize you could still get those, but I didnt really dig into it because they are dead quiet.

 

[big gear head]

The factory gears are still available because GM still makes that rear end. It's still being used in the 1500 series trucks. It was upgraded to 8.6 in '99, but the gears still interchange.

 

[wpatterson9]

Ok, here's the updated carrier, ring and pinion

 

[big gear head]

That's quite an upgrade. The AAM gears should be great. Just remember that they are probably going to be 2 cut gears and are set up a little different from the other brands 5 cut gears.

 

[wpatterson9]

I had to look up the difference between 2 cut and 5 cut. I'm on the fence as to whether I'm going to attempt this myself or just take everything to a trusted shop and let them do it. Doing the work doesn't seem far out of my grasp, its the measurement tools.

 

[slayer021175666]

I have only heard that USA Standard is a Yukon gear that didn't quite pass the exacting standards to be called Yukon. Everything I've read about them sounded pretty good. The biggest complaint was a small percentage of the people said they were noisy. Isn't gear noise just a lapping issue that would fade with time? Wouldn't the noise get less and less as the gears lap together from running them?

 

[big gear head]

I've never known of a set of gears that started out noisy and got better with time.