maverick544

I just got off the phone with the shop that put the 3.42 Rearend in my car a few weeks ago and he told me that the the spidergears are all ready torn up from the transmission tranny shift kit eaten them up. He told me that the tranny prolly will need to be rebuilt soon. So he's going to put in new spider gears for me. I Guess I can drive it as long as I dont really beat on it, but I got to drive this car 1500 miiles to florida next week from ROchester NY.. What do you guys recoomend I do? Is there like some sort of heavy duty spider gears I could get or something? THis sucks!!

ede

unless i'm on crack or something i don't think there's anything that could go on inside of or wit ha transmission to break spider gears. what ever problem you have lies with in the rear end cover. spider gears do wear and they do break. i'd suspect your mechanic has a payment coming up and the cost of a trans rebuild would cover it.

maverick544

This is what he said, that the car is creating so much torque with the shifting that all the torgue is coming straight to the the rear at the spider gears. I'm like what! Sounded weird to me, so I askedhim how much it would cost after he reccommended I get the tranny rebuilt and he's like he cant do that kinda work. I'm like what the fuc. My car is pratically all stock too, its just a 305TPI, KN air filter, ud plleys, gutted cat and now the 3.42 rear with the stock posi from the old 2.73. I talked to another shop thats putting the new speedogear in, and that guys going to check out the problem. I'm confused though, are the spider gears for the posi or what, and why would they wear so quickly in like a week? DO you guys think maybe that the gears could have been messed up in the begining after he installed them, cause its been making that hight pirtch howling sincce it go the new rear on. Before hand it was a loader more like grinding. I just need this car to get me to florida.
I think that maybe the rear that he put in before already had torn up spidergears in it.

maverick544

I'm kinda confused on this, so ede, your saying its something wrong inside the rearend cover right, what do you think it could be. The weird this is I remeber looking at the rear end cover when I first got it and it seemed like it was almost bent a lil, like it wasn't perfectly round a few indentations in it, but i figured that prolly wasn't anything. I think we're going to end up just putting a completly new rear in the car. But oh well, as long as it runs right and gets me to florida thats all that matters, What he said didn't make any sense at all about the tranny having performance parts causeing so much torque that it ripped up the spider gears doesn't sit with me too well. Also it I ripped the spider gears up why did the car run awesome, it just had that high pitch howling that was only kinda load at about 55-60?

Momar

Ede was meant it was something wrong in the rear end not that it was the cover its self. If it tore up that quick I would bet that something wasnt installed correctly. I have had a shift kit in my car for a lot longer than that. I had it with the 305 and now with the 350. I havent torn anything up in the rear and it is not necisarrily gentle. It is a B&M kit which a lot of people say shift to hard at part throttle, however since I put the new motor in I also put in a 3000 stall which seemed to absorb a lot of the impact at low rpm. I am in the process of putting in a T56 now

SSC

If its a gov lock (grenade lock) system I can beleive its eating the components If its shifting hard or your trying to spin the tires. If its a peg legger and its eating new spider gears then you probably have a worn carrier allowing the spider gears to float around or they dident shim the spiders correctly.


Trying to remember here, I dont recall any stock posi system having spider gears.

maverick544

Thanks guys, I'm kinda confused about the gov lock stuff you were talking about. But I remeber this mechanic was having a lil trouble with the posi when installing it because he didn't know it had one, neither did I for that matter. The thing is I'm friends wiht the previous owner and called him up to ask him about if he had any work done to the tranny or a shift kit. He replied he never did, he had just normal maitanience doen to the car but nothing major. Its pratically stock, just a 89 305TPI Formula Firebird Auto 700R4 tranny, hardly any mods. If the rear was making the sound before, than they prolly didn't install it right. They originally thought the rear just had to be shimmed, thats why I brought it back. SSC I dont know much about rears, but I belive he got the 3.42 rear out of a firebird with a V6 motor I'm guessing, and he used my stock 2.73 Posiunit in it if that makes anysense i guess. If they put a whole new assembly on they would have used the carrier from the new rear aseembly they installed right?

Apparently after talking to my friend the reason my car was making the other kinda of howling was because it had a small crack in the Case of the rear.

ede

i'd have to look to be sure, but i also don't believe there are spider gears with any posi unit. being a posi wouldn't casue any extra problems or work to install. if you're understanding everything your mechanic is telling you correctly i'd look for another mechanic, there is a chance you don't quite grasp everything he says and he may not be on crack or have a boat payment to make.

maverick544

What he said he did I guess was he used the posi from the old 2.73 Rear end and took that posi and put it into the 3.42 rear that he installed, because it didn't have a posi. But that sounds too weird for me, I think I'm going to call a rear end building shop and talk to them on monday before I call him. A few questions than;

1. Did V6 birds 3.42 rears from 85-90 have posi's and did they have spider gears?
2. Did 2.73 rears from 89 Formula firebirds have Posi units with them and did they have spider gears?
3. Could a non posi 3.42 rear have a posi worked in it froma 2.73 rear?
4. He is supposoply putting new spider gears in monday, will they hold up if there not a problem with the carrier?
5. Should I just have him just put a rearend from a 97 TA WS6 and say screw this rear he put in?

ede

basically any car engine trans combo could be ordered with a posi, yes a posi carreir could be swaped into a open rear, there are no posi rears with spider gears as far as i know. a 4th gen rear will require differant wheels.

Momar

2.73 gears require a series 2 carrier and 3.42 reqire a series 3 carrier. The 2 wont interchange so something he is telling you is not right.

Ben

maverick544

I thought 3rd gen wheels will fit a 4th gen rear, they will just stick out 2 more inches on each side?

88 350 tpi formula

iTrader: (9)

they all have spider gears, here are some posi unit pics, this one is an open but, the posi one has springs going between the two side gears (bassically but, not that simple)

88 350 tpi formula

iTrader: (9)

another

88 350 tpi formula

iTrader: (9)

here

SSC

Yea thier not really spider gears, Spider gears are part of a 4 gear set that turns in the housing riding all the gears. A posi unit has two side gears and a center section with a locking system either clutch gear on gear or cluch spring cone setup AKA grenade lock.

RBob

iTrader: (1)

Auburn posi-diff with spiders circled in red:

RBob.

picture credited to 88 350 tpi formula

maverick544

Yeah guys, he pulled out the whole rear and put a 3.23 rear in without a posi, runs great now. Thanks for the advice though guys