Setting up a rear is very unforgiving. Of all the DIY jobs on a car it is by far the one I have seen screwed up the most. We were taught the process in school but it was an old timer at the dealership that taught me how to do it right. When your done there should be no noise. If there is it is because you screwed up or you have defective part(s). He told me he has heard every excuse form other mechanic but they where all BS. Defective bearings are very rare and defective gears or carriers can be detected with an indicator or by checking the contact pattern. Gear manufature should not matter that much. You either have a good contact pattern or you don't. There is race type designs that will not give you a good standard pattern but any gear that uses a not standard contact pattern should come with some type of warning showing you what pattern is acceptable.

The whole rear setup is based on the preload on the pinion bearing. That has to be right for anything else to be right. If the pinion bearing gets even a small amout of play in it it will sound like bad gears because it effects the contact pattern of the gears. The only way to tell if the noise is a pinion bearing or a gear issue is to examine the wear pattern. It is very rare for the gears to cause a problem most of the time when gears are damaged it is a result of some other issue.

For most DIY'er with stock rears your better off buying a used low miles rear ends. If you want a stronger rear find a guy that knows what he is doing and get him to set it up for you unless your really want to learn. In the long run it will be cheaper to have a pro setup your rear. I lost count of how many times I have had to replace pinion, carrior bearings and gear set that had less then 2000 miles on them.

 

I never really answered your question. When the contact pattern is not right you get a whine. It is a very consistent whine that goes up and down with RPM and load but the noise is very proportional. It can also vary a lot depending on acceleration or deceleration. But when I hear that a small change in load (like shifting into overdrive) changes the noise a lot my guess would that the contact pattern is changing. Which means something is loose. I could be carrier bearing that cause it but most of the time they make a lot of noise themselves before the effect the contact pattern. On a high miles rears I do not spend a lot of time trying to figure out exactly what is going on because most all failures result in a rebuild. Pulling off the inspection cover and inspecting the wear pattern on the gear and the amount of metal on the magnet is the best way to know what is going on. I am not sure if inspecting the gear will help much if you have not already looked at 100’s of good and bad gears.
This all assumes the noise is from the gears. Bearing noise itself is a different noise. You more likely to feel a bearing noise if you put your hand on the floor of the car I do not know a better way to explain it.

 

Alright makes sense now, well how much would it average me to get all those things chAnged by a professional, I've got a local shop is take it to and I know the duh and he knows what he's doing, how much are the parts though

 

Someone that is good at setting up rear will charge about 4 hours. It can done faster then that but thats what the guys get. If you go someplace and they quote higher then that they are worried and not confident. Part prices are really all over the place depending on what you want. Use either OEM or name brand bearings. Your best bet is to let the shop setting it up get you the parts. They will charge a little more but if there is any whine when its done and you supplied the parts they are going to say its because of the parts. If they supply the parts then it does not matter why it whines they need to fix it.

I think your going to find that a 02 V8 rear with 30K on it will be cheaper then this rebuild. You will also be able to get a nice rear brake upgrade at the same time

 

I think ill be doing the second option lol, and changing out whole tears is easy too, what do those come with for gears?

 

It really depends on what the guy ordered. You can find anything from 3.08 to 4.10. Most common from a standard is 3.42. Autos are normally around the 3.08 or 3.23 range. I found one in my area that has 4.10 the guy wanted $500 but I offered $250 and he took it. He just replaced all the baring then swapped it out a few months later with a Dana 60 rear end. So you can get some good deals out there if you look hard enough.

 

Nicely said Gorn.

 

I actually bought a whole rear end with brakes for $150 and I'm still using it. The first time I broke something back there I bought the gears, bearings, shims, and installation and it costs me about $300 and was noisy. Just depends if you can find a deal on a good used one.

 

Mine whines also. It bothered me at first but I decided I would just drive it until it screams so loud I can not stand it,locks up, or strips out and quits driving the wheels. At that point I will just put a used one in. searching local yards using Car-Part.com--Used Auto Parts Market it seems used ones can be had for about $300 and are fairly plentiful.

I would also say swapping the entire rear end can be done by any moderately skilled DIYfer. As others have said rebuilding one is not.

 

Any other Chevy cars with the same rear I could look out for??