Once again at the request of a few people around here after doing the cam install write up I figured id post this for you guys. Hopefully it will help someout out somewhere along the line.
Heres the 8.8 gear install for you guys. Once again no pics but if I can find some or someone can offer some ill gladly edit them in.
Everyone seems to be scared of gear installs on these cars because people claim its so complicated, but when you break it down and do it step by step its not all that hard. Personally id rather do gears than change a valve cover gasket.
First off the tools youll need.
Metric set of sockets & ratchet – an impact can make things way eaiser/faster
3 jaw puller
8mm box end wrench
hammer – doesn’t need to be anything special a simple nail hammer would wor
low inch lbs dial type torque wrench
ft lbs toque wrench
flat head screw driver or similar
1 1/16” socket that is atleast half in drive and a big cheater pipe
very thick/fat strudy phillips screw driver – you want a cheap junk one or a snapon/mac/matco/cornwell/crafts some brand that will swap out incase you bend or break it
dial indicator
3 qts of fluid that doesn’t require friction modified
2 qts of fluid that does require friction modifier and 4oz of friction modifier
2 qts of oem/motorcraft fluid and a 4oz container of friction modifier
you don’t need all of the above..just one of the options is fine
BLACK rtv gasket maker -- I capitalized black due to its oil resistance
A small telescoping magnet – not really needed but it can be useful
White lithium grease in a can – not really needed but you can use it to prelube all your bearings
Drain pain of some sort
Carb or brake cleaner
Dial caliper
Freezer
Oven
Propane torch
Install kit
Set of inverted torx sockets
Jack up the rear of the car and stick some jack stands under it. Try to get it as high as possible while at the same time still being safe. The more room you have under there the easier your life will be. The white lithium grease can be sprayed on all the bearings during installation to prelube them, while you have the housing empty spray it out real well with carb or brake cleaner and wipe it down with paper towels.
After the car is jacked up remove the wheels, calipers/brake pads, and abs sensors (this is what the inverted torx sockets are for). Lay the pads aside and tie the calipers up or push them off to the side.
Go to the rear end and lay your drain pan under the rear cover. Ive seen/heard a lot of different ways to do this bc the fluid will supposedly splash out vs drain or something but this is how I do it and it works fine every time. Starting at the bottom and going towards the top remove the rear cover bolts until you have about 3-4 left on the top. Slowly try and pry the cover off towards the bottom the seal should pop and fluid will start to drain. Let it drain and while it does so remove your drive shaft. After removing the drive shaft remove the remaining cover bolts and lay the cover aside.
Before taking anything else apart set up your dial indicator and get your backlash measurement. Write this down and put it aside. Same thing with your pinion preoload. Put the 1 1/16 socket on your low inch lbs torque wrench and spin stick it on the pinion nut and spin it around, check what the dial is reading and write it down on that same piece of paper.
Next spin the differential around and find the following bolt. There will be a bolt with an 8mm head on it that runs parallel with the axles in the differential. I used to have a really good pic of it but cant find it. Buts it’s the only one there and pretty easy to find. You want to remove this bolt put your box end 8mm wrench on this bolt and give it a good hit with the hammer. You may have to do this a few times before it is loose enough to just spin out. If you don’t it it with a hammer the whole differential will just try to spin around. Now that the bolt is removed push out the big pin in the center of the differential.
Push both of your axles in towards the center of the car two little metal clips should fall off of them or still be attached. If they’re attached use the little telescoping magnet to “catch” them and slip them off of the axles. The axles will now slide right out. Simply pull the axle out with one hand and hold/support the rest of the shaft as it slides out of the housing with your other hand and a rag since some fluid will come out.
Now remove the 4 bear cap bolts. Be sure to somehow label or separate the caps, shims and bolts left and right since they look the same but they’re not. The differential and ring gear will now come out of the housing. Its usually in there pretty tight so you might have to use something to wedge it out. I like to use a hammer handle laid on the edge of the housing with the end of it in the “open area” of the differential and use it as a lever. This thing is a big heavier than youd thing so be careful. Theres a “story” ill post later down about screwing my hands up pretty bad.
Once that is all said and done stick that big fat screw driver I talked about up top through a hole on the pinion flange and turn it until it catches on a nice strudy spot on the housing. This will hole the pinion in place while you remove the pinion nut using the 1 1/16” socket and if you have access to one an impact. Then use the 3 jaw puller to pull the pinion flange off. Once again if you have an impact this is really easy bc you can just put the puller in place and use the impact to thread the center bolt in for the puller.
Now the pinion will come out. Sometimes they’ll slip right out, other times they are stuck in the housing pretty good. If that’s the case lay some towels or something soft like cardboard down in the housing where the differential was, put a block of wood up to the back of the pinion, and smack it pretty good with a hammer. Once the pinion is out you can remove the seal. Use the flathead screwdriver and hammer to do this. You can mangle this thing up pretty good since its going to be trashed anyways but just be careful of the housing.
Getting the pinion bearing on/off without a press. Once you have the pinion out freeze it with the bearing still on it. 30-60 min or so on the quick freeze shelf should do. Now pull it out and using the torch heat the bearing only trying to keep the flame small and directed towards the bearing. After doing this for a min or two grab the pinon by the teeth area using a towel, turn it over and in an up and down motion lightly bang/tap the shaft on a piece of wood and the bearing should slip right off. To get the bearing back on throw your new pinion in the freezer for the same amount of time (30-60min) and the bearing in the oven for a few min at 200 or so degrees. You don’t want to charbroil it but just heat it up to where itll exand the metal. Pull the pinion out of the freeze and set it close to the oven, pull out your bearing with a glove and itll slip on the pinion no issues at all.
Setting the pinion depth. I have the ford/otc pinion depth tool and have compared this method to using the ford/otc tool and the results are the same. This tool also claims that if used with frpp gears there is no need to check the wear pattern and such, which I ever never done using A. the tool or B. the “dial caliper method” and I haven’t had any issues. For this all you need is a dial caliper and some basic math. Take your old pinon + shim (after you remove the bearing of course) and get a measurement from the bottom of the pinion to the top of the shim. Lets say this measurement is 3.456". Now take your old pinion shim and put it on the new pinion and measure again. If it is 3.456" youre in good shape slap the bearing back on as shown above and move to the preload. Now lets say it is 3.446". Dig through your shim pack and find a shim that is .010 and add that to your factory shim and measure again. Basically all you want to do is make your old pinion + shim measurement match the new pinion + shim(s) measurement. Weather you use 1 shim or 10 it doesnt matter as long as you get the same measurement.
Now drop the rear pinion bearing back in the housing, along with the anything else that was below the pinion seal and reinstall the new pinion seal. Ive found the easiest way to do this is the seal in the housing where it belongs, put a block of wood up to it and give it a good hard smack dead center. Then you can gradually tap it in around the edges using a hammer. Its almost impossible to get it “seated” in the housing if you sit there and hold it up to the housing with one hand and try to go around the edges and knock it in little by little.
For the fun part. Slip on your new crush sleeve and slide the pinion in the housing, spray down the splines and threads with some white lithium, pb, ky super slickum whatever you have laying around anything is better than nothing here. Line up the splines for the pinion flange and press it on the gear (it will go on a few mm and stop), now thread on your new pinion nut. Pull out the big fat screwdriver again and stick it through one of the holes on the pinion flange to where it will catch on the housing and not allow for the pinion to move. Using the 1 1/16 socket and the biggest breaker bar you can find start to tighten the nut up its going to be pretty tight but its correct don’t worry…. keep reading heres the important part. Youll notice that the pinon has quite a big of wiggle and play in it. As you tighen up the pinion nut keep wiggling the pinion to check the play, there will be less and less as the nut gets tighter. Once the play gets to be fairly small start turning the nut VERY little at a time maybe 1/8 of a turn and keep checking for play. Once the play stops put the 1 1/16 socket on your dial type torque wrench and spin it around to check the backlash. VERY slowly/little at a time tighten the pinion nut some more,and recheck the pinion preload. Repeat this until it is correct. If reusing your old pinion bearings you want to get it to match your old preload that you checked before taking stuff apart but anywhere between 8-14 in/lbs should be safe. If using new bearings you want it to be 16-29 in/lbs. If you get it set good deal, if you go over youll have to pull the pinion back out and put a new crush sleeve on and try again.
Onto the differential flip it up side down and remove the ring gear bolts once again the impact will make this easier. The ring gear should now be unattached from the differential but may have some trouble sliding off of it. If that’s the case tap it with a hammer and it should slip right off. To install your new ring gear see if you can slip it on the differential if not bake it in the oven for a bit. You could throw the differential in the freezer if you want at the same time but I don’t think your wife/gf/parents would be too happy with that big messy thing in the freezer. Once the ring gear heats up it should slip right on, or atleast be to the point where you can catch it with your new ring gear bolts and suck it onto the differential. For those of you that say sucking the ring gear on the differential using the bolts will throw off the torque specs, don’t jump to conclusions; keep reading. If you had to suck the ring gear onto the differential using the bolts install a few bolts across from eachother and get the ring gear in place/flush with the differental. Now loosen all of those bolts to where theyre loose enough you can spin them by hand. Now go back and torque the bolts to 70-85 ft/lbs, putting some red loctite on each and going in a cross cross pattern. The way I do it is I go crisscross pattern with 5 bolts. Then grab 5 more and go criss cross with them.
Setting backlash; spec is .008” - .15” but to be on the safe side really try to get your backlash as close to what you measured at the beginning of the install …After you get the pinion in and all that good stuff put in the differential, factory shims, and torque the caps to 77 ft/lbs. Now check the backlash. If it is too little/not within spec youll have to remove the differential again you want to move the differential towards the left, if backlash too much/not within spec you want to move the differential towards the right. This is done by adding/removing shims to both sides. If your backlash is too tight and you need to move the pinion to the left add the thinnest shim you have to the right (lets say its .010") you now want to subtract .010" from the shim thickness on the left by configuring shims out of your pack to equal what you need. After that repeat the process until its within spec. This is kind of confusing but simply what you do to one side (add or remove shims) you must do the opposite to the other. For example (random numbers) your left shim is .252” and your right shim is .255”. You measure your backlash and it is too large (well say .20”). Due to this you need to move the differential over to the right. Well say the thinnest shim you have in your pack is .010” Remove your differential and install your factory shim + the .010” shim on the left side. Now subtract .010” from your right shim thickness (.255 - .010 = .245), so stack however many shims you need out of your pack and measure them until you get .245” and install those shims on the right side.
When you install the thick sturdy shims you can lay one in the house, put the differential in the house, then lightly tap the other shim in place between the other side of the differential and housing with a hammer and flat head screwdriver. If you need to install some of the tiny flimsy shims it helps to install them first and then tapping in your thickener shim with a hammer. Another option is if you have 2 sturdy shims and __ amount of thin shim you can sandwich the thin shims between the thick ones and tap them in that way.
Once the backlash is set to where you want it slip your axles in, line up the splines and push them in as far as theyll go, slip the little clips back on the axles and then pull them outward away from the car. Slip the center pin back into the differential and reinstall the 8mm bolt.
Clean off the housing where it mates with the cover with some carb clean, do the same for the flange of the cover. Put a nice bead of black rtv around the cover making circles around the holes and install it onto the housing getting the bolts hand tight. Let it sit for a bit or whatever the directions say, then go back and torque all the bolts to spec.
Put everything else back together while the rtv dries. Once it dries up real well (I recommend atleast a few hours to be safe) you can fill it up with fluid.
There wasn’t a place to fit it in above w/o getting way off topic but for my story of smashed fingers with the differential don’t put your fingers anywhere you wouldn’t put your wiener. I was installing gears with the whole housing out from under the car one day and had it up on jackstands with the front of it pointing down to where I could just drop the differential in straight down. It was already built with the ring gear on it etc (pretty heavy for what it is) my hands and the differential were covered in fluid and I was lowering it down holding it by the sides where the bearing are. I was about 2-3” from getting it into the housing and tried moving my hands out of the way of the bottom of the bearings so I could slip it into the housing. Something happened and the differential slipped, I guess I went to catch it or something and it fell those few inches smashing my fingers between the differential and housing where the bearings go. I ended up with some really nice cuts all across 4 fingers I was holding it with on each hand.
Changing the fluid __ miles after a gear change is a big debate so while were on the subject ill throw a little info out there. Some people claim that after X miles ( think people always say 500 so im gonna stick with that) of installing new gears you should change the fluid bc the gears have broke in, theres metal shavings in the housing,and if you don’t do it itll just kill the life of your gears. Each to their own but heres a few little bits of info.
1. When I was working at ford not 1 car that we did gears in did we require to come back in 500 miles so we could change their fluid after the gears broke in.
2. If this was necessary how come when you buy a brand new car its not in the maintenance information/or part of the maintenance schedule that you should have your gear fluid changed within the first 500 miles.
3. Ford clearly states “Ford design rear axles contain a synthetic lubricant that does not require changing unless the axle has been submerged in water”
Heres the 8.8 gear install for you guys. Once again no pics but if I can find some or someone can offer some ill gladly edit them in.
Everyone seems to be scared of gear installs on these cars because people claim its so complicated, but when you break it down and do it step by step its not all that hard. Personally id rather do gears than change a valve cover gasket.
First off the tools youll need.
Metric set of sockets & ratchet – an impact can make things way eaiser/faster
3 jaw puller
8mm box end wrench
hammer – doesn’t need to be anything special a simple nail hammer would wor
low inch lbs dial type torque wrench
ft lbs toque wrench
flat head screw driver or similar
1 1/16” socket that is atleast half in drive and a big cheater pipe
very thick/fat strudy phillips screw driver – you want a cheap junk one or a snapon/mac/matco/cornwell/crafts some brand that will swap out incase you bend or break it
dial indicator
3 qts of fluid that doesn’t require friction modified
2 qts of fluid that does require friction modifier and 4oz of friction modifier
2 qts of oem/motorcraft fluid and a 4oz container of friction modifier
you don’t need all of the above..just one of the options is fine
BLACK rtv gasket maker -- I capitalized black due to its oil resistance
A small telescoping magnet – not really needed but it can be useful
White lithium grease in a can – not really needed but you can use it to prelube all your bearings
Drain pain of some sort
Carb or brake cleaner
Dial caliper
Freezer
Oven
Propane torch
Install kit
Set of inverted torx sockets
Jack up the rear of the car and stick some jack stands under it. Try to get it as high as possible while at the same time still being safe. The more room you have under there the easier your life will be. The white lithium grease can be sprayed on all the bearings during installation to prelube them, while you have the housing empty spray it out real well with carb or brake cleaner and wipe it down with paper towels.
After the car is jacked up remove the wheels, calipers/brake pads, and abs sensors (this is what the inverted torx sockets are for). Lay the pads aside and tie the calipers up or push them off to the side.
Go to the rear end and lay your drain pan under the rear cover. Ive seen/heard a lot of different ways to do this bc the fluid will supposedly splash out vs drain or something but this is how I do it and it works fine every time. Starting at the bottom and going towards the top remove the rear cover bolts until you have about 3-4 left on the top. Slowly try and pry the cover off towards the bottom the seal should pop and fluid will start to drain. Let it drain and while it does so remove your drive shaft. After removing the drive shaft remove the remaining cover bolts and lay the cover aside.
Before taking anything else apart set up your dial indicator and get your backlash measurement. Write this down and put it aside. Same thing with your pinion preoload. Put the 1 1/16 socket on your low inch lbs torque wrench and spin stick it on the pinion nut and spin it around, check what the dial is reading and write it down on that same piece of paper.
Next spin the differential around and find the following bolt. There will be a bolt with an 8mm head on it that runs parallel with the axles in the differential. I used to have a really good pic of it but cant find it. Buts it’s the only one there and pretty easy to find. You want to remove this bolt put your box end 8mm wrench on this bolt and give it a good hit with the hammer. You may have to do this a few times before it is loose enough to just spin out. If you don’t it it with a hammer the whole differential will just try to spin around. Now that the bolt is removed push out the big pin in the center of the differential.
Push both of your axles in towards the center of the car two little metal clips should fall off of them or still be attached. If they’re attached use the little telescoping magnet to “catch” them and slip them off of the axles. The axles will now slide right out. Simply pull the axle out with one hand and hold/support the rest of the shaft as it slides out of the housing with your other hand and a rag since some fluid will come out.
Now remove the 4 bear cap bolts. Be sure to somehow label or separate the caps, shims and bolts left and right since they look the same but they’re not. The differential and ring gear will now come out of the housing. Its usually in there pretty tight so you might have to use something to wedge it out. I like to use a hammer handle laid on the edge of the housing with the end of it in the “open area” of the differential and use it as a lever. This thing is a big heavier than youd thing so be careful. Theres a “story” ill post later down about screwing my hands up pretty bad.
Once that is all said and done stick that big fat screw driver I talked about up top through a hole on the pinion flange and turn it until it catches on a nice strudy spot on the housing. This will hole the pinion in place while you remove the pinion nut using the 1 1/16” socket and if you have access to one an impact. Then use the 3 jaw puller to pull the pinion flange off. Once again if you have an impact this is really easy bc you can just put the puller in place and use the impact to thread the center bolt in for the puller.
Now the pinion will come out. Sometimes they’ll slip right out, other times they are stuck in the housing pretty good. If that’s the case lay some towels or something soft like cardboard down in the housing where the differential was, put a block of wood up to the back of the pinion, and smack it pretty good with a hammer. Once the pinion is out you can remove the seal. Use the flathead screwdriver and hammer to do this. You can mangle this thing up pretty good since its going to be trashed anyways but just be careful of the housing.
Getting the pinion bearing on/off without a press. Once you have the pinion out freeze it with the bearing still on it. 30-60 min or so on the quick freeze shelf should do. Now pull it out and using the torch heat the bearing only trying to keep the flame small and directed towards the bearing. After doing this for a min or two grab the pinon by the teeth area using a towel, turn it over and in an up and down motion lightly bang/tap the shaft on a piece of wood and the bearing should slip right off. To get the bearing back on throw your new pinion in the freezer for the same amount of time (30-60min) and the bearing in the oven for a few min at 200 or so degrees. You don’t want to charbroil it but just heat it up to where itll exand the metal. Pull the pinion out of the freeze and set it close to the oven, pull out your bearing with a glove and itll slip on the pinion no issues at all.
Setting the pinion depth. I have the ford/otc pinion depth tool and have compared this method to using the ford/otc tool and the results are the same. This tool also claims that if used with frpp gears there is no need to check the wear pattern and such, which I ever never done using A. the tool or B. the “dial caliper method” and I haven’t had any issues. For this all you need is a dial caliper and some basic math. Take your old pinon + shim (after you remove the bearing of course) and get a measurement from the bottom of the pinion to the top of the shim. Lets say this measurement is 3.456". Now take your old pinion shim and put it on the new pinion and measure again. If it is 3.456" youre in good shape slap the bearing back on as shown above and move to the preload. Now lets say it is 3.446". Dig through your shim pack and find a shim that is .010 and add that to your factory shim and measure again. Basically all you want to do is make your old pinion + shim measurement match the new pinion + shim(s) measurement. Weather you use 1 shim or 10 it doesnt matter as long as you get the same measurement.
Now drop the rear pinion bearing back in the housing, along with the anything else that was below the pinion seal and reinstall the new pinion seal. Ive found the easiest way to do this is the seal in the housing where it belongs, put a block of wood up to it and give it a good hard smack dead center. Then you can gradually tap it in around the edges using a hammer. Its almost impossible to get it “seated” in the housing if you sit there and hold it up to the housing with one hand and try to go around the edges and knock it in little by little.
For the fun part. Slip on your new crush sleeve and slide the pinion in the housing, spray down the splines and threads with some white lithium, pb, ky super slickum whatever you have laying around anything is better than nothing here. Line up the splines for the pinion flange and press it on the gear (it will go on a few mm and stop), now thread on your new pinion nut. Pull out the big fat screwdriver again and stick it through one of the holes on the pinion flange to where it will catch on the housing and not allow for the pinion to move. Using the 1 1/16 socket and the biggest breaker bar you can find start to tighten the nut up its going to be pretty tight but its correct don’t worry…. keep reading heres the important part. Youll notice that the pinon has quite a big of wiggle and play in it. As you tighen up the pinion nut keep wiggling the pinion to check the play, there will be less and less as the nut gets tighter. Once the play gets to be fairly small start turning the nut VERY little at a time maybe 1/8 of a turn and keep checking for play. Once the play stops put the 1 1/16 socket on your dial type torque wrench and spin it around to check the backlash. VERY slowly/little at a time tighten the pinion nut some more,and recheck the pinion preload. Repeat this until it is correct. If reusing your old pinion bearings you want to get it to match your old preload that you checked before taking stuff apart but anywhere between 8-14 in/lbs should be safe. If using new bearings you want it to be 16-29 in/lbs. If you get it set good deal, if you go over youll have to pull the pinion back out and put a new crush sleeve on and try again.
Onto the differential flip it up side down and remove the ring gear bolts once again the impact will make this easier. The ring gear should now be unattached from the differential but may have some trouble sliding off of it. If that’s the case tap it with a hammer and it should slip right off. To install your new ring gear see if you can slip it on the differential if not bake it in the oven for a bit. You could throw the differential in the freezer if you want at the same time but I don’t think your wife/gf/parents would be too happy with that big messy thing in the freezer. Once the ring gear heats up it should slip right on, or atleast be to the point where you can catch it with your new ring gear bolts and suck it onto the differential. For those of you that say sucking the ring gear on the differential using the bolts will throw off the torque specs, don’t jump to conclusions; keep reading. If you had to suck the ring gear onto the differential using the bolts install a few bolts across from eachother and get the ring gear in place/flush with the differental. Now loosen all of those bolts to where theyre loose enough you can spin them by hand. Now go back and torque the bolts to 70-85 ft/lbs, putting some red loctite on each and going in a cross cross pattern. The way I do it is I go crisscross pattern with 5 bolts. Then grab 5 more and go criss cross with them.
Setting backlash; spec is .008” - .15” but to be on the safe side really try to get your backlash as close to what you measured at the beginning of the install …After you get the pinion in and all that good stuff put in the differential, factory shims, and torque the caps to 77 ft/lbs. Now check the backlash. If it is too little/not within spec youll have to remove the differential again you want to move the differential towards the left, if backlash too much/not within spec you want to move the differential towards the right. This is done by adding/removing shims to both sides. If your backlash is too tight and you need to move the pinion to the left add the thinnest shim you have to the right (lets say its .010") you now want to subtract .010" from the shim thickness on the left by configuring shims out of your pack to equal what you need. After that repeat the process until its within spec. This is kind of confusing but simply what you do to one side (add or remove shims) you must do the opposite to the other. For example (random numbers) your left shim is .252” and your right shim is .255”. You measure your backlash and it is too large (well say .20”). Due to this you need to move the differential over to the right. Well say the thinnest shim you have in your pack is .010” Remove your differential and install your factory shim + the .010” shim on the left side. Now subtract .010” from your right shim thickness (.255 - .010 = .245), so stack however many shims you need out of your pack and measure them until you get .245” and install those shims on the right side.
When you install the thick sturdy shims you can lay one in the house, put the differential in the house, then lightly tap the other shim in place between the other side of the differential and housing with a hammer and flat head screwdriver. If you need to install some of the tiny flimsy shims it helps to install them first and then tapping in your thickener shim with a hammer. Another option is if you have 2 sturdy shims and __ amount of thin shim you can sandwich the thin shims between the thick ones and tap them in that way.
Once the backlash is set to where you want it slip your axles in, line up the splines and push them in as far as theyll go, slip the little clips back on the axles and then pull them outward away from the car. Slip the center pin back into the differential and reinstall the 8mm bolt.
Clean off the housing where it mates with the cover with some carb clean, do the same for the flange of the cover. Put a nice bead of black rtv around the cover making circles around the holes and install it onto the housing getting the bolts hand tight. Let it sit for a bit or whatever the directions say, then go back and torque all the bolts to spec.
Put everything else back together while the rtv dries. Once it dries up real well (I recommend atleast a few hours to be safe) you can fill it up with fluid.
There wasn’t a place to fit it in above w/o getting way off topic but for my story of smashed fingers with the differential don’t put your fingers anywhere you wouldn’t put your wiener. I was installing gears with the whole housing out from under the car one day and had it up on jackstands with the front of it pointing down to where I could just drop the differential in straight down. It was already built with the ring gear on it etc (pretty heavy for what it is) my hands and the differential were covered in fluid and I was lowering it down holding it by the sides where the bearing are. I was about 2-3” from getting it into the housing and tried moving my hands out of the way of the bottom of the bearings so I could slip it into the housing. Something happened and the differential slipped, I guess I went to catch it or something and it fell those few inches smashing my fingers between the differential and housing where the bearings go. I ended up with some really nice cuts all across 4 fingers I was holding it with on each hand.
Changing the fluid __ miles after a gear change is a big debate so while were on the subject ill throw a little info out there. Some people claim that after X miles ( think people always say 500 so im gonna stick with that) of installing new gears you should change the fluid bc the gears have broke in, theres metal shavings in the housing,and if you don’t do it itll just kill the life of your gears. Each to their own but heres a few little bits of info.
1. When I was working at ford not 1 car that we did gears in did we require to come back in 500 miles so we could change their fluid after the gears broke in.
2. If this was necessary how come when you buy a brand new car its not in the maintenance information/or part of the maintenance schedule that you should have your gear fluid changed within the first 500 miles.
3. Ford clearly states “Ford design rear axles contain a synthetic lubricant that does not require changing unless the axle has been submerged in water”
but anyway nice work....can't believe you took the time to write all that up for our viewing pleasure....
