Ring and Pinion quality scale

Anyone care to rank the following brands in order of quality?

US Gear
Motive Gear
Eaton
Nitro.

Ive had two sets of Richmonds in the last 12 mths and both howled btwn 50-60mph......even though I followed the break in procedure to the LETTER. 😡

I've used Motive gears on the street(street rod) and it is very quiet in a 9"

I've always had the worst luck with Richmond. Wouldn't rank the rest but would say after doing many gear installs, I try for oem used or oem/nos gears above all else if possible.

Thx. I will be using 4.10 ratio so OEM may be tricky - glad to hear others have had the same Richmond issues.

I have a Dana 60 and had a bit of a hard time finding a 4.10 as well. Ended up putting -wanted- ads on Dodgecharger.com and moparts and had what I needed right away.

(was much easier than watching ebay for a month)

I have had good luck with Richmonds so far , but I ordered a 3.50 set off of Amazon and got a set of Exel / Richmond.
They weren't marked as to where they were made anywhere on the parts or packaging , which tells me China.
Back they went.
I then ordered actual Richmond gears , which were not that much more expensive.
Made in Italy.
I have never had an issue with European metallurgy ........... even eastern bloc countries.
So I will be throwing them in and setting them up in the next week or so.
Hopefully my luck streak will continue with these.

I ran Richmonds in the race car.. couldnt tell if they were quieter not with open headers.. I broke 1 set of Richmonds
due to the carrier caps breaking.. still have Richmounds in the race car now

Used a Motive street gear Dana 4.10 in my race car. It was quiet coasting with engine shut down. It lasted 400 passes before bending the teeth. The no name replacement set only went 125 passes before shattering pinion teeth. Car has been 1.25 60ft at 3350lbs. Now has a US Gear pro gear.
Doug

I've used Richmond US and Motive none with out some issue from time to time ( bridged pattern, Noisy) but only one failuer and that was in a 12bolt with way too much power and tire.

Motive is the nicest, most accurately machined gear on the market.

Nobody's gears are as good and as consistent as they once were. US Gear and Motive seem to be the best options now. Richmonds are awful. I've seen some failures of those over the past few years that just make you shake your head.

Richmond and Motive 742 casting gears are identical.

Other than the pinion spline count, Richmond and Motive 489 casting gears are identical.

They are both made in the same factory in Italy on the same machinery.

Motive's 9.5 gears look like jewelry next to a richmond. Are they made there as well?

Wow, what is the rest of your combination?

There is a nice writeup about Doug's car on Dragzine

I have used Motive gears on different rears and they all had a great pattern and were quiet on a few street cars I have done. A few more I have built are in drag cars so I don't know if they are quiet or not but they are 9 inch Ford rears and still getting beat on all season.
I used the Summit Racing house brand gears when I had a 9" in my Savoy and they were the Italian gears made by Maserio ? They were 4.56 9-inch Ford gears and it was a very nice set and they were very quiet for 4.56's

Gus

I would be surprised if they weren't. Most of the stuff I see is 9" and I've seen some ugly Richmonds the last few years. Broken (shattered) teeth. gears that look like someone took a disc grinder to the contact area. I assume these guys are putting actual gear lube in their rears.