Do I need to start thinking of replacing these gears? **Large pic warning**

[Maniak]

I was looking for a pic of my diff cover and ran across a couple pics of the gears I took when I changed the cover..

The gears "to me" look like they are getting pretty worn. They have 200k+ miles on them and have a Detroit full locker on them (8.8 axle)...

My question is.. Do these gears look like I need to start to worry? If so, I'll add 4.56 and/or 4.88 gears to my list of things I need to do.. Also, if they are worrysome how worrysome are they? I don't noticed anything odd about them (noise etc) but with over 375k miles on most of the truck I doubt I'd notice rear end noise..

Click on the pics for the really big version of the pic.

EDIT: both pics show a shiny spot on one tooth (edge center).. That is a chip.. That's the only tooth I saw with a chip in it.. but that chip plus what looks like rounding made me wonder.. I'm no gear expert which is why I'm asking (they could be "normal".. which is what I'm hoping)

~Mark

 

[Burns]

I have never seen any with that mileage so i dont know.


I can tell you from when my 9" was down. When the gears start making noise. You will notice it. I have a fairly loud exhaust and I still heard it.

If you were having a problem i would say that you would know it.

 

[wrhjr]

Those dont look bad. I had a old chevy truck (72) that the gears were literaly missing teeth and it roared a bit but i drove the hell out of it and it never got any worse the whole time I had the truck.

 

[IZwack]

They look fine

 

[Maniak]

Thanks for the info.. I've read about needing to get gear setup correctly many times.. so I was worried that over time the gears would wear enough that they would end up not meshed correctly...

I won't worry about it for now.. I'll just leave them until I'm ready for the 35" tires and the 4.56/4.88's.

~Mark

 

[jumpn4jesus]

Dude, they look totally fine! I'm gonna take my rear cover off to change the fluid in it. I want to inspect the gears. I have a feeling something isn't right! I will take a picture if I can find my camera.