Whats everyone's routine when installing a new ring and pinion? Put it up on jack stands and let it run forward and reverse? Drive around the pits or just take her to the track? Pro Gear if it matters. Thanks. Kevin

2 quarts of Lucas 75W-90 synthetic gear oil and go racing.

I believe I read somewhere once that gear manufacturer said you don’t run it long enough when drag racing to get it very hot so they said no breakin required for drag racing.

What's gear break in???? Never done it.....

What I think is funny though, is when I see some racers warming their cars in the pits. They will put it on stands, put it in gear, and run it for a bit with it in forward gears, then put it in reverse and run it more like that....WTF??? Trans fluid and gears don't care what gear its in, temp is temp....

Also, if you're spending a lot of time in reverse, you're doing something wrong....

Proper gear setup is what's important....

Just me but after a week or 2 I change the gear oil. I figure the bearings don't need any metal in their fluid.

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Originally posted by Undertaker II:
Whats everyone's routine when installing a new ring and pinion? Put it up on jack stands and let it run forward and reverse? Drive around the pits or just take her to the track? Pro Gear if it matters. Thanks. Kevin

Jack it up and run it in reverse for 5 minutes, let it down and make as many laps around the track as you can, park it for and hour. After it sits an hour, pull in the lanes.

My personal preference and I have never experienced any adverse results. I set the pinion bearing and side bearing preload very light. With the pinion, I barely have the slack out, the very slightest of drag. [note: this is with a solid crush sleeve kit that allows selecting shims to get the preload desired. The pinion nut is tight with a drop of lock tight on the threads.]

The side bearings also have a very light load.

The wholly assembled gear set is effortless to turn, and as a side benefit, the car is easy to push.

Larry knows!

Set the gear bolt it in and take it to track. Thats when you break it in.

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What I think is funny though, is when I see some racers warming their cars in the pits. They will put it on stands, put it in gear, and run it for a bit with it in forward gears, then put it in reverse and run it more like that....WTF??? Trans fluid and gears don't care what gear its in, temp is temp....

Mark, what I think they are accomplishing by doing this is simply making sure that the transmission works in forward and reverse. In other words, no surprises when they do their burnout. I warm up at tracks where it's not a mile to the staging lanes unlike Denver where there is no need.

Vern, I saw a guy doing this at Bandimere....He would put the car on stands, start it, put it in gear, run it like that for at least a minute or more....stop, put it in reverse, then do the same thing.....I guess he felt reverse needed to be warm like forward! Checking reverse is one thing, "warming" it like that is another....doesn't make any difference at all.

Total waster of time. Monkey see monkey do. Been racing for over 3 decades and ain’t ever once warmed up any of my cars on jack stands. Routine has always been twice around the pits, get water temp to 180, shut it down and let it heat soak until the call for 1st round.

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Originally posted by Larry Woodfin:
My personal preference and I have never experienced any adverse results. I set the pinion bearing and side bearing preload very light. With the pinion, I barely have the slack out, the very slightest of drag. [note: this is with a solid crush sleeve kit that allows selecting shims to get the preload desired. The pinion nut is tight with a drop of lock tight on the threads.]

The side bearings also have a very light load.

The wholly assembled gear set is effortless to turn, and as a side benefit, the car is easy to push.

Bing we have a winner!

If you put the car on jack stands and run it in reverse for a few minutes for break in purposes, it'll run quieter in reverse from there on out in the future.

It works because I've done it both ways, broke a gear in with putting it in reverse on jack stands, and not run one in reverse for break in.

This I presume, is why US GEAR includes these break in instructions in, with every gear they sell.

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Originally posted by Coloradoracer:
Vern, I saw a guy doing this at Bandimere....He would put the car on stands, start it, put it in gear, run it like that for at least a minute or more....stop, put it in reverse, then do the same thing.....I guess he felt reverse needed to be warm like forward! Checking reverse is one thing, "warming" it like that is another....doesn't make any difference at all.

I think what he was doing by running it in reverse was cooling the rear end off after running it forward, you know reverse, other words taking the heat out.

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I think what he was doing by running it in reverse was cooling the rear end off after running it forward, you know reverse, other words taking the heat out.

Now there's some logic I would have NEVER thought of.

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Originally posted by "The Bender":
I think what he was doing by running it in reverse was cooling the rear end off after running it forward, you know reverse, other words taking the heat out.

Just a guess here but the "run in reverse" thing makes sense to me for 2 different reasons.
1. It will force the oil to circulate in a different path inside the housing than when the gears are going forward.
2. You are setting the wear pattern on the backside of the teeth in the reverse direction.
Only thing i'd add is drag the brakes a little to simulate some load occasionally during the reverse part. Rietow is right here.

When I bracket raced driving to the lanes was the only warm up the trans and rear end got. Top Dragster is a different animal since I am towed to the lanes.
On the initial warm up of the day I use jack stands but it has nothing to do with the rear gears. You could run it for an hour and not build any heat in the gears IMO. After getting some heat in the motor I run it in low then shift to high, neutral then into reverse for just a short bit. Then back to low and put it on the TB. this is all done to make sure all the gears and TB work and build some heat in the trans and converter. The last step is to hold the brake while in gear and adjust the barrel valve if needed.