Street- Strip Gears what is the differences

[2ndgear]

What is different between street gears and strip gear. Is one softer then the other or does one make more noise then the other one? Can you use strip gears for the street or not and why? Thanks for the responds

[plovett]

Strip gears are made of softer metal which makes them less likely to break.  I think the softer metal would wear faster, which is the reason you wouldn't want to use them on the street.  I imagine you could use them on the street with no problem.  They would just wear faster, so maybe you don't want them for a daily driver or any car that racks up a lot of miles.

JMO,

paulie

[2ndgear]

Thanks Paulie. Do you think strip gears are noisier then the street gears. The reason I ask is a friend of mine has a set of richmen gears and they are noisier. I checked the back lash and the pattern and every thing checks good. This is a nine inch. diff. I have set up a lot of theses in the years and I thought once on this site that some one said that the strip gears are noisier in a street car. So I am thinking that maybe he has the wrong set of gears in his car. Does that make any since? Thanks again

[plovett]

I don't know if the strip gears are inherently noisier.  Maybe someone else can answer that?

[BattlestarGalactic]

I've run "pro" gears for years in the wagon and they are quiet as a mouse.  It only took 15 yrs of beating on them to finally chip a tooth.  I heard horror stories early on that I would have to replace them every few years due to "wear".  Ya, that was a old wives tale.

Granted, they might not go 100K miles, but for a weekend warrior I think they would survive with good lubrication(I run synthetic).

Depending on your power requirements I would not run Pro gears if you don't need to.  With my car weight and power, I put a 10" tire on the car and it only took ONE pass to snap the pinion shaft off.  That was near 20 yrs ago and I still have the broken spline/nut on my desk here at work(looking right at it now).

Were your friends gears new and noisy? 

[jayb]

I've run pro gears in my Drag Week cars for several years now.  Never had to replace a set despite the street miles.  I think they would probably go an easy 20K miles on the street before you had any problems.  They are just as quiet as street gears.

[2ndgear]

Yes they are new and noisy right away. Maybe he has 200 miles on them at the most.

[Falcon67]

3.00 - quiet. 4.56 - noise. The lower the gear ratio (higher numbers:1), the more you are going to hear it. More teeth, smaller contact, more whine. Strip gears in a street car is a mistake anyway. They are soft to help absorb high impact/torque hits on the strip with biting tires. On the street they just wear away quickly. Money thrown away. Unless maybe it's a street/strip car that runs low 10s or faster. If not, he's just pissing off $.  Example - Jay's cars for Drag Week.  I've run street gears  - Richmond or Moser - here in everything and have been as quick as low 11s (7.0x in the 1/8) and never had a gear issue. 

BTW - who's gear set?  I love Summit and Jegs but would not run either of their house gear sets.

[BattlestarGalactic]

I had REALLY BAD luck with Richmond stuff 25 yrs ago.  I went through 3 sets of gears in my pickup in one summer.  They would last only a month?, start howling and when I pulled them the ring gear teeth would be polished to a chisel point.  They would scream like a police siren.  I haven't used them since.

What I remember was they were stating I was using the wrong lubrication(I was not using a syn).  I can't recall if the last set I installed were Richmond?  I had them out about 5 yrs ago when I changed housings and they still look like new.