3.55 ring & pinion

I just installed a set of Motive 3:55's in my 8-1/4" rear. I bought them on line from National Drivetrain. They were priced quite reasonable but were a tad touchy to set up. I can't comment on the noise as I just put the rear in the car and will have to get the driveshaft modded before I can drive it.

Building an 8-1/4" makes sense for a modestly powered car, should take up to 400hp no problem, definitely if it's behind an automatic. I ran a 7-1/4 behind my 360/904 combo for ten years with no problems. In fact the little 7-1/4 was installed on a fair amount of 273 hi-po cars from the factory with automatics if memory serves.

I have heard from more than one source about Richmonds being noisy too which scared me away from them, not saying it's true though, just my 2 cents. Yukon is a foreign made gear(china or Korea I think), so were my Motive's. Probably would not have bought them if I knew that but they looked very good coming out of the box. Richmond my be the only gear I looked at that was made in USA. I guess it doesn't really matter where they are made if they are good quality. There was one gear set that stated "not recommended for quiet running vehicles". Allot of the sets meant for off road vehicles(trucks,jeeps) say this. Don't know if it's because they are cheaply made or because it's a by product of making them indestructible. I wouldn't take them as a gift for a street car.

Edited in:
Here is a link for Randy's Ring and Pinion. Note how they say Richmond is not recommended for quiet running vehicles, says the same thing about USA Standard Gear(ZG part numbers, pretty sure those are zoom gears).
http://www.ringpinion.com/PartsList...Name=Rings+&+Pinions&CatType=Sub-Differential