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School me on 9" ratios

Correct me if I'm wrong but as far as I know the "soft" gears are made from 8620 and the "hard" gears are from 9610. I've not heard of gears being made from anything else.
 
9310 is an alloy I see related to "fancy" gearsets pretty frequently. But I've never known if the material difference alone is what makes "race" gears, or if they actually harden them to a lower rockwell hardness.

Same goes for 8620 honestly, do some maintain that standard alloy, but actually make them legitimately softer?
 
Here is from speedway on their cheap race stuff.

Gear units are built from long wearing, tough 8620 cold-rolled steel. We offer lightened gear assemblies from 5.29:1 to 7.33:1, select the "L" option (example: 529L) from the gear ratio selection

I have lots of friends that run these. They’ll have 5 or 6 different ones on hand in incremental ratios. Maybe the track calls for .10 different ratio to be in the sweet spot. Or they put the “big” motor in for the big money race. Speedway doesn’t put in writing that these are “soft” but these gears will be knife edged and howling like a banshee before the end of a summer.
motive cheapies that start at $100 bucks. But they are short lifed in their intended use.
 
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9310 is an alloy I see related to "fancy" gearsets pretty frequently. But I've never known if the material difference alone is what makes "race" gears, or if they actually harden them to a lower rockwell hardness.

Same goes for 8620 honestly, do some maintain that standard alloy, but actually make them legitimately softer?
Q: What's the difference between 8620 and 9310 gears?

A:
The standard answer is, 8620 is used for street/strip gears where a hard long-wearing gear is desirable, and 9310 is used for high-impact racing applications where a softer (but tougher) gear is needed. However, that's not the full story, as advancements in custom heat-treating have made it possible to create 9310 gears that are capable of excelling at both roles. The 8620 material is a low-nickel steel alloy that produces a very hard and somewhat brittle gear. 9310 is a superior alloy that contains additional chromium and nickel, enabling it to be more malleable or flexible, and able to withstand higher shock loads without fracturing.

Heat-treating is the secret sauce that, in large part, determines the properties of a finished gear. Modern gears go through a computer-controlled heat-treating process that is tuned to achieve the desired outcome. Both 8620/9310 can be heat-treated to similar surface hardness, but 8620 cannot be made as malleable or tuff as 9310.

Historically, 9310 gears were used for drag racing, and the heat-treat process was engineered to maximize the alloy's malleable property to the detriment of hardness. This is the reason most people believe that 9310 gears are soft and only suitable for drag racing. However, with proper heat-treatment 9310, alloy gears can be nearly as hard as an 8620 gear, while retaining most of the malleability that makes them tuff. As an example, the ring and pinion gears used in our Currie 70 high-pinion axle, are manufactured from custom heat-treated 9310 alloy and have proven their on-road durability and off-road toughness over many years of harsh use.

9310 is basically the "chromoly" axle shaft version for ring and pinions.

8620 shatters when shock loaded, while 9310 will not, kinda similar concept with 4340 or 300m axle shafts can twist much more before failure.

 
Gears with sliding tooth contacts like hypoid ring and pinions gears need very hard surface on teeth. Surface heat treating is what give them the hardness to resist wear. Otherwise they will have short service life.

particularly when a ring & pinion almost look like a worm gear (9" 7:1), make for a TON of sliding across tooth contact, pinion spinning at higher rpm than usual, generating a lot of heat. We need surface hardness for this if you want them to last long.
 
So figured I'd share a bit of news I received from Yukon via email.

I was on their website browsing the ratios for their 9" 35 spline ring and pinions. BUT when I clicked on "technical specs" it was showing them listed as a 28 spline. And I know you could you could fit a 28 spline pinion in the 35 spline supports with the spacer Yukon makes. I was particularly interested in the 6.20 ratio that was also on backorder. So I sent them an email that stated...

"Hello, I was browsing through your selection of 35 spline 9" gear sets but when I click "technical specs" it lists the pinion as being 28 spline. Is this just a typo? I was specifically interested in the 6.20 ratio that's on backorder. Any idea on when this might be available if it is a 35 spline pinion? Thanks for your help.
Mark"

They're simple response an hour later was this...

"We are no longer offering 35 spline pinion 9” gears."

So anyone care to commit? Does this mean whatever's left out there is it OR are there really any 9" 35 spline R&P's for sale at all currently on shelf's?

If so I need to pick a ratio that is in stock and scoop them up asap, I'm too poor for the other options that exceed $1,000+.
 
I’d call ECGS and see what you can find there before you panic.

And then call Mark Williams. I seriously doubt MW 35 spline is going away. Seriously not much better company to deal with. And if you need axle shafts, get a quote from them while you’re on the phone. I bet you’d be shocked at their prices and lead time.
 
So figured I'd share a bit of news I received from Yukon via email.

I was on their website browsing the ratios for their 9" 35 spline ring and pinions. BUT when I clicked on "technical specs" it was showing them listed as a 28 spline. And I know you could you could fit a 28 spline pinion in the 35 spline supports with the spacer Yukon makes. I was particularly interested in the 6.20 ratio that was also on backorder. So I sent them an email that stated...

"Hello, I was browsing through your selection of 35 spline 9" gear sets but when I click "technical specs" it lists the pinion as being 28 spline. Is this just a typo? I was specifically interested in the 6.20 ratio that's on backorder. Any idea on when this might be available if it is a 35 spline pinion? Thanks for your help.
Mark"

They're simple response an hour later was this...

"We are no longer offering 35 spline pinion 9” gears."

So anyone care to commit? Does this mean whatever's left out there is it OR are there really any 9" 35 spline R&P's for sale at all currently on shelf's?

If so I need to pick a ratio that is in stock and scoop them up asap, I'm too poor for the other options that exceed $1,000+.

Messing around on Google, it seems that 35 spline pinion and 5.xx or lower are not common in the sub $500 range. The drag race guys aren't going to run 5.43 or 6.20 and circle track guys probably don't need 35sp pinions.
 
I’d call ECGS and see what you can find there before you panic.

And then call Mark Williams. I seriously doubt MW 35 spline is going away. Seriously not much better company to deal with. And if you need axle shafts, get a quote from them while you’re on the phone. I bet you’d be shocked at their prices and lead time.
Going to do just that. I'll just have to pay to play with the big boys. I get a deep discount on yukon and 2 sets of yukons are cheaper than one set of Mark Williams without the discount and forget about adding any of the fancy MW options.


Messing around on Google, it seems that 35 spline pinion and 5.xx or lower are not common in the sub $500 range. The drag race guys aren't going to run 5.43 or 6.20 and circle track guys probably don't need 35sp pinions.
Exactly what I found. Nothing deeper than 4.11 under the $500 range that I could find anyway. Only 35 spline I found was Yukon that list them for $300-450 depending on ratio.
 
I’d call ECGS and see what you can find there before you panic.

And then call Mark Williams. I seriously doubt MW 35 spline is going away. Seriously not much better company to deal with. And if you need axle shafts, get a quote from them while you’re on the phone. I bet you’d be shocked at their prices and lead time.
^This....

I don't know about MW, but ECGS has a LOT to offer that's not on the site. They priced me out some stuff a few weeks back with GearWorks parts and while it wasn't cheap, it wasn't nearly as expensive as list price over at GW's site.
 
Not sure if it's relevant or anyone cares but I asked Yukon why they're stopping making them. Response...

"35 spline pinion 9” gears are a soft pro gear

We got tired of people installing in street cars then complaining about longevity etc. so we dropped the entire line of pro gears ."

Going to follow the advice and move on. Call ECGS and go from there.
 
I’d call ECGS and see what you can find there before you panic.

And then call Mark Williams. I seriously doubt MW 35 spline is going away. Seriously not much better company to deal with. And if you need axle shafts, get a quote from them while you’re on the phone. I bet you’d be shocked at their prices and lead time.
another vote for mark Williams.
 
Not sure if it's relevant or anyone cares but I asked Yukon why they're stopping making them. Response...

"35 spline pinion 9” gears are a soft pro gear

We got tired of people installing in street cars then complaining about longevity etc. so we dropped the entire line of pro gears ."

Going to follow the advice and move on. Call ECGS and go from there.
When people wonder why my social skills are lacking and I seem to have no patience for the poors. Remember that.

I put Yukon soft pro gears in a street car and they were noisy. Do you know what I did about it? Burn outs. You know what I didn’t do? Complain or ask for a refund. People think they should be able to pay $200 bucks for a part and have it last forever, then if it doesn’t that someone owes them money and an apology.

The only reason to put those gears in a street car is being a cheap ass. Being a cheap ass gets them cheap results. Since they’re cheap asses they want to make it somebody else’s fault. Lowest common denominator human behavior. Now we all lose a good option because of to many male Karen’s who can’t take responsibility for themselves. I know one of those Karen’s, is why that’s a little triggering to me.
 
Not sure if it's relevant or anyone cares but I asked Yukon why they're stopping making them. Response...

"35 spline pinion 9” gears are a soft pro gear

We got tired of people installing in street cars then complaining about longevity etc. so we dropped the entire line of pro gears ."

Going to follow the advice and move on. Call ECGS and go from there.
So instead of recognizing and meeting a demand for big pinion streetable gears they go the opposite way and kill the product line. Makes sense.
 
So instead of recognizing and meeting a demand for big pinion streetable gears they go the opposite way and kill the product line. Makes sense.
Sounds like the Yukon of late. They dropped their 9" Zip after "comp guys" kept blowing them up. Guess they couldn't engineer something better, so I guess that makes sense, but parts used in comp don't have a warranty anyway....so maybe there's more to that story.
 
Sounds like the Yukon of late. They dropped their 9" Zip after "comp guys" kept blowing them up. Guess they couldn't engineer something better, so I guess that makes sense, but parts used in comp don't have a warranty anyway....so maybe there's more to that story.

I heard the D60 comp got axed too awhile back. I sent one back for warranty and they sent me a new one saying it was redesigned.
 
I heard the D60 comp got axed too awhile back. I sent one back for warranty and they sent me a new one saying it was redesigned.
Hmmm....any idea why yours failed? I have a brand new in box 35 spline D60 Comp Zip here for 4.56 and down that I was planning to sell to buy a 40 spline ARB.
 
Quick performance would be worth a call as well for 9in pro gears. Needed a 5.13 dana 60 pro gear last week for a pulling truck axle. They had a richmond in stock for $525 shipped vs $600-$620 everywhere else.
 
Maybe, but I'd bet your use is harder on parts that most trail rigs, especially ring and pinions.
You’re not wrong. I was 73:1 all in, and I was respectfully hard on that rig. She got flogged when necessary. 😂
 
Do you know which part of the state it went to?
I wanna say Albuquerque? That’s what the area code was. Super nice guy. He text me not long ago and said he was enjoying it. It’s gonna cool because he went from a v8 powered Rockwell rig on 50” mega SXs, to my rig. 😂 talk about polar opposites.
 
I wanna say Albuquerque? That’s what the area code was. Super nice guy. He text me not long ago and said he was enjoying it. It’s gonna cool because he went from a v8 powered Rockwell rig on 50” mega SXs, to my rig. 😂 talk about polar opposites.

That's Bill, he's in Albuquerque. It will be cool to see it in person.
 
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