Drove it!!!!
Went to have the 3:42's installed at a friends reputable off-road/performance shop, used gear set, found a few marks in the crown so decided to put a perfect set of 3:73's in. (he has a source for oem gm gears that were change outs when purchaser of new vehicle wants different ratio. Picked it up, did proper heat cycles/break in. Not a sound from the rear end. Felt perfect. Driving home from work last week i slowed down to turn onto my road and rear end started to whine. Went to the shop, found the pattern looked good but was wearing into the gear quite deep. Friend got ahold of supplier and sent pics, supplier figured faulty gear maybe but warrantied it and sent another set. Picked up on tuesday, be driving every day and on the way to work this morning at highway speeds i noticed it is starting to whine under light load..... Now, do i continue driving to see if it develops and gets louder? Pull the cover and look? or Beat the piss out of it until it screams for me to install a 9"?
anyways...back to what did i do to it today???? Drove it, yelled, swore....parked it in the parking lot at work until i leave and drive it back home in 2 hours!!