Lost in numbers: Which ones are right?

[Northidahotrailblazer]

but there really isn't much to to it. You can do it yourself, with a book. There are plenty of you tube vidoes of some mustang guy doing gears on the weekend at his house. Buy a true track carrier an axle rebuild kit and a book take your time. Might need a press but a cheap harbor freight one will work fine..... you can pop the carrier in the freezer and the bearings in the oven and the bearing will pretty much fall on the carrier.....Its not that hard. just my .02 cents.

 

[Lefty]

25 hours at $80 bucks a hour for shop rate comes out the the $2000 in labor they quoted me..... 25 hours to regear a 8.8 thats pulled and ready for them is unreal..... There is no reason it should take a guy that has done gears before more than a shift.... I mean come on... how would a shop make any money??? its really pretty straight forward. and there isn't anything special about it. I'm a heavy equipment mechanic, I can rebuild a hole loader axle in half that time. So I understand the struggles but an axle sitting on there bench. a hour to pull the shafts out, brakes and all that. A hour to get the diff pulled down a couple hours remove old bearings count shims new parts and what not. I don't really feel like i should have to pay for a guys inexperience when they are advertising gear work on the TV and radio..... So I'm going to do mine myself.....

I've come to the very same conclusion. I'm glad you commented. I thought that it was just me who had all the bad luck. Apparently a lot of shops and parts counters treat people that way.

And by the way I should also mention that there are some pretty cool people out there too. I can count on my local gas station which is privately owned. There's a couple good and knowledgeable guys who work the parts counters at a couple stores. They are courteous too. I've often walked in and explained a problem only to receive a free and reliable diagnosis right then and there.

 

[Lefty]

but there really isn't much to to it. You can do it yourself, with a book. There are plenty of you tube vidoes of some mustang guy doing gears on the weekend at his house. Buy a true track carrier an axle rebuild kit and a book take your time. Might need a press but a cheap harbor freight one will work fine..... you can pop the carrier in the freezer and the bearings in the oven and the bearing will pretty much fall on the carrier.....Its not that hard. just my .02 cents.

Thanks!

 

[rubydist]

The only hard part is setting the gear mesh between the ring and pinion. For a guy who knows what he is doing, this takes about 2 or 3 tries to get it right. For a guy just reading the book but who has never done it before, this may take 10 tries. Each time is pulling out the carrier and changing the size/location of shims, and sometimes is removing the pinion and reshimming that. Each time you torque the pinion crush sleeve, it needs to be replaced, so the guys who have done it a few times know to leave it not fully torqued, and they know how much that changes the resulting mesh when they do torque it - the only way you learn that is by experience. That is why the shops want 2 days of labor to do it - they are expecting to take 10 tries to get the gear mesh correct. You just need to find a shop that has a guy who knows what he is doing.

 

[Blmpkn]

2k in labor is an "I don't want to do it price"


Or they thought you were a sucker.

 

[Lefty]

I have yet to find that right shop, but I have a little luck. I have a friend who has done this before. I'm helping him restore a 2002 flair side Edge. All in all, I'm sure this is still a better strategy than buying junk and hoping it works. We do each other favors and help each other without keeping score., all except he's lost my DeWalt drill!

The U-Pull yards and the salvage businesses have played a very important role for both of us, especially for body work, interior parts and non mechanical stuff. It's also been good to go down together and help each other muscle some of this stuff around.

 

[Lefty]

2k in labor is an "I don't want to do it price"


Or they thought you were a sucker.

I used other words for "I don't want to do it." There's a lot of shops that just want to change spark plugs and change oil all day long, I can't really blame them. They are guaranteed to make good money.