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The greatest damage to any
new ring & pinion gearset usually occurs during the first thousand miles. During this
time, the new gears are bedding-in which generates quite a
bit of heat and if driven hard
you will raise this temperature even further and may cause
irreversible damage to the gears. This is because
the surface finish of the new gears is not perfectly
matched and hasn’t had enough run-time to allow the
machine surface finish to wear itself to its final match.
The new ring & pinion gears are now lapped in but they still must have
sufficient run-time to allow the surface finish to
properly develop.
Over the course of a few thousand miles the gears will
bed-in, increasing the load bearing surface area while polishing themselves
up nicely to where they are smooth
and shiny. This improved MSF (machine surface
finish) reduces the heat that is generated and the larger
load bearing contact area increases
the overall durability of the gearset. It is wise to let
the transfer case ring & pinion gears bed-in before
pushing them to their material limits. This process takes
about 5000 miles before the ring & pinion have fully
bedded in. Think it takes only 500 miles?
WRONG! It takes much longer than you think. If
you take apart a freshly rebuilt transfer case after 500
miles the gears hardly show any signs of bedding in.
Recommend procedure for breaking-in your
new ring & pinion:
Follow the transfer case
filling instructions provide on the
FAQ section of this
site. Vehicle speeds should stay below 60 mph for the first 100
miles. Drive the vehicle 10-20 miles, stop and let cool for
30 minutes. Repeat this process at least 5 times
before driving the vehicle at highway speeds. Do not abuse or dump the clutch
or do any hard acceleration, let the ring & pinion bed-in
gently. If you take it easy on a new ring & pinion and
perform regular oil changes it will last much longer.
Use caution when letting out the clutch as aggressive high rpm clutch dumps can fatigue parts and may
lead to eventual failures.
New or
recently rebuilt transfer cases should have the oil
changed after the initial first 500 and again after 1000
miles.
TRE
adds a Moly assembly additive to transfer case, do not be
alarmed by the color of the oil. Vehicles that are
being road raced require race car maintenance and all
drivetrain oils should be inspected after each race and
changed if the oil is dark or stinky. Road racing
applications may add an additional 1/2 pint of oil to the
transfer case for added lubrication and cooling.
Transfer case oil recommendations
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