In the late '90s the drop in Dana/Spicer gears for the OE 3.45 gear ratio where not known. Richmond made gear sets but they had a moderate amount of gear whine associated with them. Dana/Spicer gears will run silently if installed correctly. '90 to '96 Corvette manual transmission cars used the new version of the Dana 44 known as the Super 44. The pinion gear used a larger 1.626" shaft with a 29 spline yolk for greater durability. In an effort to work arround this problem Dana 44 gear sets with a 1.375" pinion shaft and 26 a spline yolk were adapted by installing a sleeve on the pinion. The sleeve was also tack welded. To complete the conversion a 26 spline pinion yolk and a 4 Series Trac-Lok differential assembly were used.
Many of the conversions had a short life, especially when drag raced. They would become very noisy with gear noise. Some of them were slightly noisy but did not fail. A few of them run quietly. A few have survived many miles and many years and are still in service today. The easly way to identify one is to inspect the pinion yolk. The conversions use u-bolts to clamp the u-joint. A Super 44 uses straps to clamp the u-joint.
This is a sleeved Dana 44 pinion that was very noisy. Note that the weld has broken and the sleeve has rotated out of position.
