I need some help.

I had a severe knocking noise in my rear end after some toying around. Turns out I blew two teeth off of the ring.

I'm pushing approx. 440hp (last time I dyno'd it was at 426 but I've modded and tuned since then.)

I had a 3:73 gearing in the rear end.

I do not want to screw with changing the ring and pinion.

Is there any vehicles that come stock with 3:73 that I could tear the rear out of? Is there any suggestions on what the next step to take would be to get it back on the road. I'm up against the wall here because I really have no clue about rear ends on a vehicle.

 

A lot of people are scared of gears, but they're not too bad if you're mechanically inclined and have a lot of patience. The key here is patience, because there is nothing technically difficult about it, you just have to be willing to take everything back apart, change shims, and reassemble multiple times until everything is perfect. The way people screw up gears is they get fed up, just say "that'll be good enough," and run it till it blows up on them in 10-20k miles. The first gears I ever set up 8 years ago are still running great after much abuse offroad, and i had no experienced help. Many aftermarket gear sets are stronger than factory, so you'd be better off than just swapping to a new rear axle with that kind of power. Here's a good article on it if you want an overview of what's involved.

http://www.chevyhiperformance.com/te...all/index.html

the gears usually come with a manual showing more details on the wear pattern, and get the install kit which comes with shims and new bearings and seals. If you have good connections, you can borrow some tools, the only specialty tools you need that you probably don't have are a 1/4" beam style inch-pound torque wrench ($50 from NAPA), a dial indicator (about $50 on ebay), a cheap set of calipers or micrometers, and access to a press to change bearings.

I agree, swapping the whole axle might sound easier (and probably is if you find the right one for cheap), but this could also be a good opportunity if you wanted to swap to some lower gears for more off the line grunt.

 

with that kind of hp u will continue to blow 10 bolt rearends. they are rated to 350hp. check out what spohns has in a 12 bolt gm or 9 inch ford for your car and start saving money. u could put some new gears in or pick up a complete differencial from a wrecking yard to hold u over till u get the bucks.