im in san antonio and a local shop told me it would be 6.6 labor hrs at 75$ and hour for my 3.9 gears, it sounds kinda high on the labor hrs to complete this job, i know the labor cost will change per location but i didnt think they would charge 6.6 to install, does anyone know the labor hours a shop charged them for install?

 

Mitchell, which alot of shops use calls for 4.7 hours.

Should be about $400 or so depending on rate.

 

yeah 4.7 sounds about right, he said he was going to quote me through mitchell but when he called back he std he used another program, i dont remember the name. do they have to R&I the rear diff to install the gears or can they leave it on the car?

 

Is this a tuner shop with 350Z experience? If no ask for a shop recommendation in your regional forum. $500 may be the going rate.

Remember when you buy parts from a third party, the installer makes no money on the parts. Some installers add a surcharge for "bring your own" parts.

 

The pumpkin definately needs to come out to install gears and or differential. Figure about an hour to remove and reinstall the pumpkin itself. Installing ring and pinion is fairly time consuming if done properly, as the pinion preload,backlash,total preload and gear contact pattern have to be right.

 

im checking in my area as well but im looking at the labor hours not the total cost of the bill. that really shouldnt be different, the shop says they have done a 350 before and they sound like they know what they are doing and they were recomended.

 

well i got the 3.9s put on and wow, im still breaking them in (didnt think there was a break in for gears) but i have only put about 90 miles on them and havent taken it above 4500 but i can feel the diff, it almost feels as if 2nd gear is 1st and 3rd is 2nd and so on, i found my self checking to confirm what gear i was in while driving, i cant wait to really get on it to see how it changed everything

 

What was the final tally......I am looking at doing this in the near future. Thanks.

 

the gears are on sell 350evo for under 500 and install cost was 450, i know i paid too much for install but couldnt find anything cheaper =( even though i havent broke them in yet i can tell this was one of my best mods.

 

I had figured 400 so......450 isn't terrible.

 

yeah but i was really hoping for more options down in san antonio, it was either do it myself or have this shop do it, couldnt find anything to compare it to, only looked for about a week or two though

 

just an update i broke down and paid to get them put in, i went through the recomended brake in and man i love these gears, my best performance mod hands down. i feel it pull much harder all through the gears, and its real strong on the highway, when i cruising on the highway in 6th it almost feels like im in 5th, when i first got them on i kept checking to make sure i was in 6th. on the highway im still getting around 25-27mpg, i used to get 26-28mpg. i really dont understand why the Z didnt come with this stock or at least the 3.7 gears. well my next step is an uprev tune (christmas) for all my bolt ons and then headers(tax time)(re-tune). then maybe cams if i can convince the wife