I dropped my jeep off lasted night so i can get my gears installed tomorrow. I know the the break-in period is 500 miles and read a couple places that I can only do short distances bc I dont want to heat the gears too much.

Is that true and what is considered a short distance 10 miles?

 

When I got my gears done the guy told me to do cycles for the first 70 miles. Meaning you can drive 10 to 15 miles then let them cool. Mine was simple cause I live 8 miles away from work so Ijust drove to work then drove home. Then you can drive it like your grandma was driving your Jeep .

 

To start ask the installer what their guidelines are for break-in because if the gears have problems they installer will be fixing them.

The gears need to be heat cycled (tempered). Ideally, they need to be run for periods typically no more than 45-60 minutes at speeds not to exceed 50 MPH. This will heat up the gears and then you allow them to cool down. This process needs to be repeated for the first 200-300 miles. Then you should limit your cruising speed until you hit 500 miles. Factory gears have already been heat cycled so they don't need to undergo this process. Aftermarket gears don't put them through this process probably to reduce cost.

There are those who claim they left their shop and climbed the face of Lincoln on Mt. Rushmore right after and the gears are fine 100k miles later. The choice is yours.