Place for regear?

Hey guys, I'm in north Alabama so I figure I'd check here to see if there was a good place to get regeared at in TN. Is there a reputable place that has experience with Tacomas?

 

I'd recommend looking at doing it yourself. I did mine with a little help from friends. East Coast Gear Supply or ECGS has everything you need for parts and makes shipping pretty easy too. It's one of those instances where a case of beer will save you a lot of money!


https://eastcoastgearsupply.com/

 

Yeah I thought about even driving over to ECGS and having them do it.

I really want REM polished gears though (maybe cryo also). I really want to avoid the 500 miles of drive 10 miles and wait 45 minutes.

I'd have to buy the polished gears, ship it to ECGS (because they don't offer REM polished), they'd build it, then they'd send me the clamshell and 3rd.

If I can't find a good diff place between Birmingham, Nashville, and Atlanta, that's probably what I'll have to do.

 

Where did you hear of doing this? I've never heard a need for that. I and several people I know have regeared and I don't know anyone that's done that!

 

Hmm, yeah the official break in seems to just have one heat-cooldown cycle (if I'm reading it right).

But there's several threads like this one that talk about doing the cycles every 15 miles for 500 miles.

 

I definitely think he was being a bit anal retentive with the break-in period. Just try not to over stress it much for the first 500 miles, change the gear oil for some fresh high-quality synthetic and be happy with the improved performance!

Most of my break-in was done on the freeway a 70-75. I did try to avoid hard accelerations, but that was about my only concession to the new gear break-in.

 

Thanks man, that sounds a lot more doable and in line with what Nitro recommends.

Now I just need to figure out how to install the 3rd and clamshell from ECGS.

 

For what it’s worth. When we instal gears, we order gears and bearings from ECGS, and have them shipped strait to 300° below in Illinois for cryo treating. Once done, 300 below ships then back to ECGS, where they are assembled, then shipped to us where we do the 3rd member exchange and install any locker accessories that are required.

Cryo is a proven help for what we’ve seen. Our tummy tucked FJ has hard, hard rock crawling miles on them, and about 150,000 miles now, never broken a Toyota 8” gear set that I cryo’ed.

For break-in, I’m pretty anal to a very specific set of guideline. But it’s had for me to break that habit as again, I’ve done horrible things to gear sets, and when I get to cryo them and break them in my way, I’ve never had a set fail on me.

Rob

 

'Rock Your 4x4' or 'Rocky Top Customz' in Knoxville do good work.

 

Thanks Rob, so no REM, just cryo? Can you tell me how much 300 below charges?
What is your break in routine?
I don't currently plan on doing anything really extreme, but I do want it to last well into the 6-figure mileage.

 

Thanks, that's less than half the drive to ECGS. I'll call them up when I decide where to get the gears - group buy or ECGS.

 

Either way that's a long way to travel just for some gears. Do you not have a local off-road page on Facebook or something? I find it hard to believe there is not somewhere closer that could do the install

 

No one seems to know a reputable place around here that has experience with Tacomas. Jeeps no problem, but not Tacomas.

There's a Rocket City Offroad here that says they can do gears for $800, but I didn't like the advice the guy was giving me about other things when I was talking to him.

 

Gear are gears man

 

REM works, it really does, and I do that to my drag cars when it's much harder to increase ring and pinion size. But on 8" gears sets, I feel that the cost/benefit ratio isn't there, especially since the success I've had with just cryo. This is over about 35+ Toyota's that wheel.

Some background, I came from four digit horsepower drag cars and rock buggies that hate gear sets. So applying this matters a lot more when you are pushing every components to near failure. Not as relevant for a 250 hp 1GR-FE, but that doesn't mean there are not benefits for those that want to do the extra work for them.

For break-in, what matters is applying load and generating heat. We want to "work harden" the metal, making the outside of the gear teeth harder for long lasting wear, but keeping the inside of the teeth from becoming brittle so they are less likely to chip off when shock loaded. The best is stop and go driving, never coasting, always applying load, and slowly increasing rotation speed over time.

Fill with high quality synthetic GL-5 (if going over 4.56:1, I switch to 75w-110)
From 0-45 miles on new gear set: 3x 15 mile runs, drive like a grandma, stay below 45 mph. But remember the stop and go, always trying to accelerate, and limit coasting for this entire process is the real difference. Let gear set completely cool between runs. Heat cycles, heating and cooling, that's what makes these things strong. Gotta love material science.

From 45-200 miles: drive a little easy, not in a rush, just drive like you have no where to be. Stay below 55 mph. Try to not drive over 35 miles at a time to allow for a few hours of cool down.

200-450 miles: drive normal, still not getting on the highway. Stop and go.

450-500 miles: drive aggressively, but not going to WOT, stay below 60 mph. Drive like you have to be somewhere and you hate traffic. I like to do two 25 mile runs.

Once at 500 miles: 3x 15 mile runs where you go onto the interstate, and WOT it to 75-80 mph, then slow down as much as you safely can, the WOT back to 80 mph. Build the heat! then let it completely cool between runs.

Then change your diff fluid to the high quality GL-5 gear oil of your choice (taking into account viscosity changes that may be required from the manufactures of you new gear sets or lockers).

Doing this, I can tow 6,000 pound trailers with 4.88 gear sets all day in the mountains, and my rear diffs run so cool that I can immediately come off the highway, put my had on the 3rd member or housing, and leave it there. Then rock crawl them year after year.

If you ever tow, do 3x 15 mile runs with the heavy trailer. That way, when the gears press into themselves even harder because of load, they have the ability to heat cycle before running them hot all day.

Is that excessive? To some, and that's fine. To us, we like precision, so excessive is normal.

Rob

 

Rob, thank you for taking the time to pass on that excellent knowledge.

That seems like a reasonable break in to me and I will adhere to the same.

 

Hey @DaMaDo did you ever find a shop?

-thanks

 

Yeah, Brakesplus on 72 just east of Huntsville did it for me. Everything came out well.

 

Thanks for the reply! Did you go with 4.88 cryo etc?

 

Nitro gear recommends this process