Doing a 2008 Viper 3.55 rear end swap. Want to know if anyone has these issues.

[Qualitywires.com]

A local viper owner is having me replace his rear end on his 2008 viper. Got 3.55 rear end assembly to use. Got everything off and the rear passenger side axle went right in. Now for the ******! I go to put the rear driver's side in and it won't go in! I took off the snap ring on the splined part of the axle thinking that maybe something is getting bind up. No luck. I then take apart the suspension so I can pull out the entire axle. I then try to put it straight in. No luck. I take the axle and put it on the OEM rear end and whalla, it goes in with ease!

Has anyone had these issues? It appears that the spline/pitch is not right on the new 3.55 rear end swap. I am a bit pissed because this is allot of work for someone else's mistake.

 

[jimchris]

The shop working on mine can't get one axle out so we are sending the hole thing to Woodhouse on monday. We are going to have Mark pull the axles and put the new gear in.

 

[Qualitywires.com]

The axles come off easy if you use a pry bar to separate the axle from the spline that is connected to the differential. It pops off. There is a retainer ring on the spline that holds the axle on. I will show a picture here soon. Now I started taking off the 3.55 rear end and went to pop off the axles and the one that went on fine pulled out the spline that goes in the new 3.55 differential! Looking closely at it, it appears that whoever assembly the differential did not put a retainer ring on the spline that goes in the differential! So now I have to take apart the entire rear suspension to take off the rear axle off so I can remove the 3.55 differential! Geesh! Someone should help pay for the labor on this for my customer. Lots of extra work that is not the customer's fault.

 

[Qualitywires.com]

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[Qualitywires.com]

Whoever put this differential together must have been completely careless and not checking themselves. This incident caused triple the work it should have to install this differential, not to mention the down time and hassle of packing everything up and shipping it back. If you guys order one of these swaps, I would make sure the manufacturer double checks their work or it could cost you lots of labor.

just a heads up.

 

[GTS-R 001]

Good points ab, your a better viper tech than most of the "real" viper techs

 

[Qualitywires.com]

Once I have these issues worked out for my customer, I will do a write up on how to swap out the rear differential. uurgh! what a hassle!

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[BennyBad]

did this new 3:55 differential come directly from unitrax or did the owner provide it for you. i see the unitrax decal on it . just thought they were the best for these gear swaps and somehow a bad one got by.. if you had been able to have connected the axle with this condition would there then been a leak due to the retaning clip missing???sorry for the questions have been wanting to have this done and follow any post closely when gears a mentioned.

thanks B

 

[Qualitywires.com]

Unitrax is a solid company..no doubt. It's the person who put this one together that needs a spanking.

It wouldn't leak because of the retainer ring.

It appears the pitch of the spline is the issue.

 

[jimchris]

Looks like your problem is a bit different than mine, the axles came off ok its the shafts going into the diff. can't seem to get one out.

 

[VipeRay]

did this new 3:55 differential come directly from unitrax or did the owner provide it for you. i see the unitrax decal on it . just thought they were the best for these gear swaps and somehow a bad one got by.. if you had been able to have connected the axle with this condition would there then been a leak due to the retaning clip missing???sorry for the questions have been wanting to have this done and follow any post closely when gears a mentioned.

thanks B

I ordered the complete rear diff. assy. from PartsRack,but was delivered straight from Unitrax. After reading about all the hassle involved with installing just the ring and pinion gears,I decided to pay a lot more money and order the complete assy. If A.B. (who is a darn good mechanic)can not assemble this unit,something sure in the hell is screwed up with it!!!

 

[GTS-R 001]

Ab,

When you gonna get rid of that Italian stuff and get your ass back into a Viper?

 

[ROCKET62]

When all else fails, crack open a beer and use the

BFH!

Thanks for this write-up and the one you plan to post afterwards.

Good luck.

 

[Qualitywires.com]

Ray sorry to hear about your response you got on this issue. I will make a call on Monday for you to see what needs to be done about this. I will keep you posted. I am not too happy with the comments that where made about my abilities by a certain somebody, but I will put that aside for now. My goal is to get your car on the road again and put a smile your your face. No hassle with me.

I will be getting a Viper at some point. Trust me I do miss it. I need another garage. The Italian cars are much more of a challenge since there are many gremlins that can make you pull your hair out.

 

[BennyBad]

I ordered the complete rear diff. assy. from PartsRack,but was delivered straight from Unitrax. After reading about all the hassle involved with installing just the ring and pinion gears,I decided to pay a lot more money and order the complete assy. If A.B. (who is a darn good mechanic)can not assemble this unit,something sure in the hell is screwed up with it!!!

Ray
08 Vert Viper
67 SS/L78 Matching #'s Body Off Total Restoration BB Chevelle

__________________Ray sorry to hear about your response you got on this issue. I will make a call on Monday for you to see what needs to be done about this. I will keep you posted. I am not too happy with the comments that where made about my abilities by a certain somebody, but I will put that aside for now. My goal is to get your car on the road again and put a smile your your face. No hassle with me.

I will be getting a Viper at some point. Trust me I do miss it. I need another garage. The Italian cars are much more of a challenge since there are many gremlins that can make you pull your hair out.
__________________
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based on these responses ,is there a problem with unitrax or vendor standing up behind there product and blaming it on install error? i believe most 08 owners would do the gear swap the way you did ,by ordering a entire new rear differential with gears installed (at a greater cost than just gears)to prevent any problems due to the difficulty of swapping gears in the new 08 rear end. so that any qualified mechanic can just remove the old rear and install new rear and oil, proper break in and done (plug and play). and that a spline came damaged,this is very odd. please keep us informed.
thanks

 

[Qualitywires.com]

No issues with seller/vendor since I have not talked with them as of yet. Only thing lost is labor and time. I will be making a call to where Ray bought his items from to see what needs to be done to remedy this situation. As far as install, it's pretty straight forward. Like I said just to double check myself, we went beyond and took off the axles which requires you to take off the suspension. (lots of extra work). Once we had the axles/differential off and no chance of the axles being put in at an angle, that is how we where 100% sure that the splines from the 355 differential were not making it in the axles on the stock 08 Viper as shown above.

I take it this swap has not been done by many on here yet?

 

[Qualitywires.com]

Talked with Unitrax today and they explained that sometimes the splines will get lightly damaged when they assemble them and I will need to sand the splines/burs on them down to get the axle to fit. I guess I will try this and see what happens. If it doesn't work, it will be going back to unitrax for a proper replacement.

 

[BennyBad]

you would think that if unitrax is aware of the problem with the spline that there quality control should have picked up on it and did the sanding/grinding before shipping??? and they expect you do clean up there work and if it still doesnt fit are they going to say your correction was wrong. sorry to be so negative but you and your client are going thru the worst case scenerio that has prevented me from doing this mod.and my car got hit by flying gravel and i have 5 new little rock chips...

 

[ViperTony]

Talked with Unitrax today and they explained that sometimes the splines will get lightly damaged when they assemble them and I will need to sand the splines/burs on them down to get the axle to fit. I guess I will try this and see what happens. If it doesn't work, it will be going back to unitrax for a proper replacement.

What about the missing retainer clip? Are you going to look inside the diff and see if that clip is floating around in there? Seems like Unitrax should take the diff back and correct their problem especially if they acknowledge their QC issues with you. Talk about a giant time ****. I hope this gets resolved soon. Keep us posted.

 

[Qualitywires.com]

Retainer clip is suppose to be on the inside of the unit where it clips on the shaft, but unitrax also said that they grind down the groove where the retainer clip holds the shaft in. The groove is typically at a 90 degree angle and they make it a 45 degree angle which explains why the shaft pops out. I guess they do this for their ease of assembly. Tell you what...if someone bust their axle or the shaft from the diff, you better hope there's enough meat to grab the piece of shaft out of the axle or diff.

Yes I agree, I really shouldn't have to "sand" or "grind" down burs on the shaft going to the axle. What would be the easiest thing is for the vendor/manufacturer to send a ups label for pick up and send a new unit with fluid/additive to the customer after they verify fitment of the stock axle. That would be customer service...Now if I where a dealership and I had a rack ******* because of this..I wouldn't be a happy camper here. (no fault to the customer) I will work through this to get this resolved.

 

[Steve-Indy]

Maybe you need to remind folks (Unitrax) that you have a UPS hub in your town...just to get them "in gear"!!! Don't let this get to you...it will all work out!!

 

[Qualitywires.com]

Oh this differential isn't going to get to me. It's just the lack of detail and the wait Ray has to go through now.

 

[got one]

Wow....just be glad this issue happened to AB, becuase otherwise we might not have heard about it till much later...

 

[Steve-Indy]

Any news or update???

 

[Qualitywires.com]

I did what Unitrax recommended what I should do. I sanded down the edges of the spline where they said to. I sanded the shaft and tried the axle again. It didn't work. I took a very close look at it and it appears the splines are slightly twisted and deformed. Not sure if it's from a previous car that snapped an axle and they just took it off and reused it without checking it. This axle is NOT going on and now it's going to take more time and hassle of packing this thing up to ship back. Quality control didn't seem to be a factor on this unit.

The vendor that sold this unit needs to take care of this with the manufacturer. Not me making several calls to fix someone else's issue.

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[Shadowman]

I did what Unitrax recommended what I should do. I sanded down the edges of the spline where they said to. I sanded the shaft and tried the axle again. It didn't work. I took a very close look at it and it appears the splines are slightly twisted and deformed. Not sure if it's from a previous car that snapped an axle and they just took it off and reused it without checking it. This axle is NOT going on and now it's going to take more time and hassle of packing this thing up to ship back. Quality control didn't seem to be a factor on this unit.

The vendor that sold this unit needs to take care of this with the manufacturer. Not me making several calls to fix someone else's issue.

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You have already gone far beyond that which I would have done; the ball rest firmly in their court with the inconvenience sadly in yours and your customers.

I would have expected a call tag at the same time an alternate unit was being delivered as such taken one of the box and placed the DOA one in and "out-da-here"

Very discouraging

Shadowman

 

[Qualitywires.com]

All, just an update:

Unitrax said they would send a call ticket in and get the unit fixed. The 2008 rear end is still scarce so this one will need to be freshened up and checked. I am hoping this will be a one week turnaround time so I can get Ray's car back on the road since I have more cars coming in. The vendor who sold Ray his unit is doing his best to remedy this issue. This is not a bash thread of any sort. Just a thread to make sure we all double check our work. The vendors on here are long standing Viper supporters like myself. I am sure this is all going to work out in the end. You all know Unitrax has help set some record times with their products in the Viper world. In fairness to the vendors at hand, I might have expected an unrealistic turnaround time on the repair of their item. So I have a very good looking 2008 Viper sitting on my lift. Can't complain about that now can I! By the way the selling vendor did offer to give me the next rear end at cost with no profit for the troubles. No need to do that. It's all good.

 

[Shadowman]

All, just an update:

Unitrax said they would send a call ticket in and get the unit fixed. The 2008 rear end is still scarce so this one will need to be freshened up and checked. I am hoping this will be a one week turnaround time so I can get Ray's car back on the road since I have more cars coming in. The vendor who sold Ray his unit is doing his best to remedy this issue. This is not a bash thread of any sort. Just a thread to make sure we all double check our work. The vendors on here are long standing Viper supporters like myself. I am sure this is all going to work out in the end. You all know Unitrax has help set some record times with their products in the Viper world. In fairness to the vendors at hand, I might have expected an unrealistic turnaround time on the repair of their item. So I have a very good looking 2008 Viper sitting on my lift. Can't complain about that now can I! By the way the selling vendor did offer to give me the next rear end at cost with no profit for the troubles. No need to do that. It's all good.

Thank you for the update; I for one never saw this thread as a bash but rather a real time sharing of the events as they unfolded.

Things happen, it is simply part of a typical day however the manner in which the folks involved tend to the issues will forever be remembered.

Takes care

Shadowman

 

[Qualitywires.com]

Thanks Shadowman.

 

[Steve-Indy]

Hi, Adam & Ray. Any word from Unitrax now that the unit has been returned???