I've done a lot of searching and it seems the majority opinion on here is that Motive gears are the quietest--I was wondering if you guys ordered the Performance Motive gearsets, or the OEM replacements?

The Strange gears I have now are RIDICULOUSLY loud after about a year--they've been checked and reset to spec twice (even though they weren't out to begin with) and still howl like a werewolf in heat. I need some quieter gears since my car is a daily and I hate having to shout over the howl of the rear to talk to my passengers

 

I run youkon gears and they are quiet just like OEM. I am also verry happy with them over all . GM gears are probley the best but the motive or youkon will save you a few bucks.

 

No real difference.

The Strange gears are ordinarily quite quiet. I'd be inclined to suspect that they weren't installed right, no matter what the installer told you, or what the pattern was, or any of that. They're actually US Gear. Those, or Superior, or Dana, or Precision, or AAM (Motive), are all perfectly capable of being quiet. Even the Richmond NON-RACING ones.

The only ones that are basically impossible to get to completely shut up, because of the shape of their teeth, is the Richmond RACING ones. Those are a single-purpose, drag race only part. All other properties are sacrificed in order to optimize their longevity in drag racing. They WILL last many times as long through hard launches on slicks, as any of the stock style street gears mentioned above. But they also WILL NOT survive long on the street, and they WILL be noisy.

 

Are you sure they are U.S. Gear/Strange and not Motive already? If it's a Strange 12 bolt, they use what ever they have on the shelf at the time.

I have a Strange 12 bolt in an 88 GTA that has had two sets of Motive performance gears in it and it is loud.

The first set was done by Strange. Pinion preload was at 90 in./lbs when we took it apart to replace the first noisy set. After about 150 miles all of the bearings looked like they had 100,000 miles. The pinion bearing behind the yoke had gotten so hot it had started to burn the gear oil on it. We had to use a three foot long pry bar to get the carrier out of the housing.

Strange sent another set and bearings to the shop where the car was and they had it in and out a number of times trying to get an acceptable pattern and backlash that was quiet. The pattern and backlash is good but they are loud enough that the car isn't fun to drive for any length of time.

I have three other cars that all have Richmond gears. A 12 bolt (not the GTA's) with 3.42 and two 8.5" 10 bolts with 3.42 or 4.10, and they are all quiet. And the 12 bolt had U.S. Gear/Strange 3.73 that were also quiet.

Sorry for the hijack but thats my experience with Motive gears.

Rob

 

my set of Strange's (i ordered them myself from Thunder Racing, they are Strange gears) was a bit noisy after the initial installation, but about a month ago they started howling like ****ing crazy. it's pretty much unlivable now. it's been inspected twice since then, mechanic says they look fine :-\

everybody on here praises the motives for being quiet... which is why i was wondering if they were talkinga bout the Motive OEM replacements, or the Motive Performance set, which is the set that Thunder Racing stocks.

 

AFAIK, AAM gears are AAM gears. The only difference between "OEM" and "performance" is the packaging and marketing.

Strange is US Gear. They're usually quiet. If they're making noise, and the teeth are right, then it's not the gears themselves making the noise; it's the bearings. Wrong pinion preload probably.