3:73's: My 2 cents worth
 

I know there are probably hundreds of threads about this already, but after my experience with gears, I wanted to re-enforce the importance of changing the gears if you are modding.

After investigating a peculiar sound from the rear-end, I had the rear axle assembly taken apart and found bad carrier/axle bearings and pitted axles. Since the gears had to come out anyway, I had the original 2:73's traded for 3:73's.

My stang comes almost as stock as you can get, but HOLY SMOKES what a difference gears make!! If you don't have 'em, get 'em. The car used to be so sluggish before, but launches like it's on springs now. It operates at higher revs now as well. At 80, the rpms were barely at 1800; now are about 2400. I thought this was fine since the 4.6 breathes better at around 2500 rpms anyway. I lost a couple of miles to the gallon, which to me was not a big deal. If you do a lot of highway driving I could understand moving to 3:55's or even 3:27's, but nothing higher. I guess I gotta change my sig.

What was the sound that your rearend was making?!? I love my 3.73's also.

Hard to explain really. It was sort of a mild grinding/hissing sound coming from behind the back seat. It was NOT a whinning sound like a ring gear that wasn't shimmed properly. It was loudest at around 35 mph. It has always made this noise since I bought it and just thought it was normal. But a few months ago I noticed it was getting louder. My mechanic said some of the bearings were going bad and were probably "shaving" metal off of the axle; metal was getting in the gear oil causing more damage to the bearrings, and on and on. When he drove the car he could tell by swerving the car side to side which side the bum bearings were on. In my case, he suspected the passenger side axle bearing and possiblly the passenger side carrier bearing due to the fact that when he swerved to the right, the car's weight was transfered to the left and off of the right (passenger) side bearings. Made sense to me.

3.73's rock, I ws so scared they'd be too much when I first put them in. NO ONE could have convinced me to get 4.10's. Now, as my 95 is a 3rd vehicle, so I'd put 4.10's in them anyday!