Hello all,

I've been lurking here for month's. I bought my 04 FX4 in April and so far have put on many mod's that I read about here. I have fought the steering wheel shimmy for a couple of months and am now on my 4th set of rotors(new models) and they seem to be working ok, three new axels in the rear end. I got rid of 99% of the shimmy going back to factory wheels. I tried a set of Centerlines, a set of Robby Gordons, and a set of Eagle Alloys. I'll get to my thoughts on this vibe/shimmy though in another thread.

My truck is the silver over charcoal supercrew. I have a Rancho 4" lift with the stock 18in wheels and 35X12.5X18 Toyo Open Country MT's. I took the truck in last week and had 4.56 gears and an Eaton electric locker(up front) put in. The first day and a half I didn't notice it but on the way home on the second day I noticed a "singing" coming from my rearend, I can't really describe it as a howl. It only does it under power when you let off the gas the singing goes away.

Is this normal?

I have never had a truck/vehicle with this low a gear ratio. I took it buy the shop that did the work and he said to wait till after the first of the year and see if it get's any worse. He's willing to change them but I'd like to know if this is normal before I have him change out the rear gears.

Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.

Thank's

Mike:santa:

 

Mine howl around 55-65. 4.56, 2 shops later and 3 opinions later and 4000 miles. They first just made a whistle. I had another shop redo them, fixed the whistle but the not the howl. The third shop said that they keep having problems with our application because its new (04 F150 9.75 rear), the gear manufacturers just don't seem to be doing any quality control with their price war. Gears are cheap right? Cheapest they've ever been, well something had to give. I'm just going to run them for about 15k miles and see what happens. Hopefully by then if they don't quiet down they will have started making better gears. The original shop did a sh*tty job in the first place (long story don't ask) and I doubt I'd take it back to them to get it fixed. For now, I just try to ignore the noise and save up for future replacement. Could just be bad luck but whatever. Performs great and doesn't sound any louder than the military hummers that drive down the freeway from Pendleton.

 

Gear whine isn't normal IMO, no matter who's gears they are. Regardless of the manufacturer of the gears or the axle, the principal has remained the same for over half a century. Reputable gears set up by someone who knows what they're doing shouldn't make noise.