Can my gear whine be eliminated? or close?

My car has had gear whine since I purchased it and although its pretty annoying I was living with it. I recently had my driveshaft off to rotate it trying to track down a driveline vibration and just checking things over and put a ratchet on my pinion nut just to make sure it wasn't lose and without much effort it moved. It wasn't lose by any means but it wasn't torqued where it should be. I read on a ford racing gear install the the minimum torque spec was 140 ftlbs. I didn't want to risk going too tight and went to 130 ftlbs and thought I would try it and see what I got. It seems like the gear whine may have gotten louder and it moved from a constant whine to only when accelerating and it pretty much goes away on coast.

I know the suspension I have on the car will probably always have some noise but I would like to know if it can be brought to a tolerable level. I have Ford Racing 3.73 gears in the car that were installed professionally by the local ford dealership many years ago. Do I need to open up the rear end and start replacing parts. Can the 3.73's be made quite? I know for the 9" stuff we like to use Motive Gears for best results but I'm not sure what the go to setup is on the 8.8

Yeah, louder exhaust.

A whine during acceleration caused by worn ring and pinion gears or improper gear set up. You said it’s been whining since you bought it. Before the 3.73s were installed?


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CobraBob said:

A whine during acceleration caused by worn ring and pinion gears or improper gear set up. You said it’s been whining since you bought it. Before the 3.73s were installed?


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This. Does it do on accel or decel? Lash is off if it's whining for sure.

13COBRA said:

Yeah, louder exhaust.

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That doesn’t fix it. I tried that already. Lol.

I swear 373’s from FMS all whine. Now both sets I had that whined both had RP fluid in it. So not sure if that is part of the issue? Or just no one knows how to do gears right?

CobraBob said:

A whine during acceleration caused by worn ring and pinion gears or improper gear set up. You said it’s been whining since you bought it. Before the 3.73s were installed?
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The gears were already installed when I got the car.

buddha93 said:

This. Does it do on accel or decel? Lash is off if it's whining for sure.

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Whines on accel only right now.

Do you or previous owner ever drag race the car? I’ve found the manual trans S197 cannot be drag raced without resultant gear whine. Just is part of the S197 3-link.
In your case, if you plan to keep the car for a while, probably best to have the rear fully rebuilt with a new R&P and all bearings.
-J

I’ve had 8.8’s whine well before any type of racing with FMS 373’s

On stock rear suspension, JPC Racing had to install my Motive 4.10s three times before the whine was tolerable. Even then, they weren't perfect, but good enough. That was in December 2018. Then, in the spring of 2019, I did an all-poly rear suspension, including LCAs, UCA , panhard, sway, and relocation brackets. The "good enough" rear end suddenly took on a very loud whine. That's when I concluded the stock rubber suspension hides A LOT A LOT of noise.

Interesting. My 373’s in my SN were just as loud when stock suspension was on as with the built suspension.
My Shelby is probably only a tad quieter due to sound deadening material compared to the SN

biminiLX said:

Do you or previous owner ever drag race the car? I’ve found the manual trans S197 cannot be drag raced without resultant gear whine. Just is part of the S197 3-link.
In your case, if you plan to keep the car for a while, probably best to have the rear fully rebuilt with a new R&P and all bearings.
-J

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The previous owner did a little of everything with the car and was a regular road coarse racer. I know it had been to the local drag track a few times also.

I primarily use the car for fun and make some pulls a couple times each time I have it out but wouldn't mind bringing it to the drag track here or there for fun. I think with my style suspension and the rod end style joints, I'll never get away from it 100% but it's pretty bad right now.

Do you have any recommendations on what gears and install kit to put in it?

biminiLX said:

Do you or previous owner ever drag race the car? I’ve found the manual trans S197 cannot be drag raced without resultant gear whine. Just is part of the S197 3-link.
In your case, if you plan to keep the car for a while, probably best to have the rear fully rebuilt with a new R&P and all bearings.
-J

Click to expand...

The previous owner did a little of everything with the car and was a regular road coarse racer. I know it had been to the local drag track a few times also.

I primarily use the car for fun and make some pulls a couple times each time I have it out but wouldn't mind bringing it to the drag track here or there for fun. I think with my style suspension and the rod end style joints I'll never get away from it 100% but it's pretty bad right now.

Do you have any recommendations on what gears and install kit to put in it?

cidsamuth said:

On stock rear suspension, JPC Racing had to install my Motive 4.10s three times before the whine was tolerable. Even then, they weren't perfect, but good enough. That was in December 2018. Then, in the spring of 2019, I did an all-poly rear suspension, including LCAs, UCA , panhard, sway, and relocation brackets. The "good enough" rear end suddenly took on a very loud whine. That's when I concluded the stock rubber suspension hides A LOT A LOT of noise.

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I'm wondering if Motive gears would be a better choice over the Ford Racing? Yeah I don't think my suspension helps the noise at all.

PM-Performance said:

Interesting. My 373’s in my SN were just as loud when stock suspension was on as with the built suspension.
My Shelby is probably only a tad quieter due to sound deadening material compared to the SN

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My car has always had the aftermarket suspension on it so I don't know it any different but anyone I talk to and my experience with vintage cars holds true..the high performance poly bushings or in my case solid rod ends makes the noise much worse.

I wonder as well. Not sure what it is about FMS 373’s