Well I recommended that a vendor review section be added to the forum, but in lieu of that here is my expierance with East Coast Gear Supply in Raleigh, NC for a day and a half. I would also like to add that I am not affiliated with the shop and was just another paying customer.
In order to not repeat too much, here a copy of my post from the "what was done to your rig today" thread:
Well I made it up to ECGS and the guys had already gotten everything ready and were just waiting on me to show up. Got the jeep down loaded and up on the lift, then Lee was taking it apart within a few minutes of arriving.
Took the nickel tour of the shop and all I can say is wow, there is a lot going on. Chase, Ryan, Andy, Lee and the guys are super friendly and extremely knowledgable; almost felt like I was back at rockware, tanner, or predator 4wd in Colorado Springs.
Lee finished getting the JK torn down that afternoon and early evening then we called it a day. I went to my hotel room at one of the hotels right around that corner that Chase had squared away for me. If you have never been to Raleigh before, there is a lot to do around the area such as wondering around in a national park, a huge indoor mall, and even a bunch of outlet stores if that is your type of thing.
The next morning I received a call from Lee around 1030ish asking if I wanted to add a set of outer tube seals to my front axle as he was finishing it up and getting ready to put the new chromo shafts in. I of course asked how much, got a deal I couldn't turn down, and told Lee to go ahead and hook the seals up. I checked out of my hotel and filled up the duramax a little before noon and then headed back to the shop. When I got to the shop Lee had finished buttoning the front axle and driveshaft up and was getting ready to start on the rear. I walked around to see what else was going on and look at some things that I had glanced at the evening prior. One thing that I spent some time gawking at was the large stock of 8.8s, 9 inchs, and front and rear dana 60s.
Then I went back to the bays and watched Andy putting the finishing touches on a ECGS custom 8.8 with their custom TJ brackets, ARB, and gears. All I know is that I wish I could lay down beads as good as Andy does, he work looks flawless and super beefy. Andy then hung the 8.8 into a newer TJ along with new UCAs, rear drive shaft, completely new rear disc brakes and parking brake cables, and a few other bells and whistles. Lee in the mean time was getting my new ring bolted down and new carrier bearings pressed onto my factory electric locker, installing the new pinion bearing races and putting on the set up bearing so he could run a pattern. I learned a few different things during this process, especially a few things that were specific to the JK d44 axles such as shim placement etc. Well after a few adjustments and a QC by Andy (who has some seriously calibrated hands as he can tell you how many thousandths to adjust and sure enough you through a caliper on it and he was exactly right), Lee pressed on the new pinion bearing, installed the pinon into the housing along with the outer pinon bearing and seal and then went through what I always couldn't stand . . . pinon bearing preload. After a few measurements with the inch/lb torque wrench the preload was good to go and Lee went ahead and installed the pinion yoke, carrier and torqued down the bearing caps.
After the setup was complete Lee and Chase added the new chromo shafts with new bearing, seals, tone rings, and backing plates, the riddler diff cover with lube loacker gasket, and started rehanging the brakes and new CV rear driveshaft. Upon completiong of adding the diff oil and putting the wheel spacers back on, we moved on to fixing the horrible balancing job on my km2s from a local shop in Columbia and got all of the rebalanced with less than 1/4 of the weight that was on the tires when I brought the jeep in. The tires got hung and torqued down, I recalibrated the computer for the 5.38s and then we went for a test spin. There was a noticable difference going from the 4.10s to the 5.38s and that was with me in the passanger seat. We listened for any gear whine or bearing noise and then cruised back to the shop. Lee and Chanse went over the jeep one last time with a fine tooth comb for leaks or other issues while I settled up with Ryan. We loaded up all of the take offs into the back of my truck and got everything ready for the ride back to Columbia.
I got the JK down loaded this moring after getting back last night and took her for a spin around town to run some errands. This time from the driver seat I noticed even more of a difference with the new gearing. The gears actually made me somewhat like the JK again (I'm partial to my TJ). I now have better drivetrain response then I did with the stock 32s and 4.10s, even though I now have a viper TB, AEM intake, and MBRP exhaust.
In conclusion, ECGS is a great shop that i would recommend to anyone. Everyone there is super friendly, extremely knowledgable, and the guys are overly meticulous about all of their work and the products that come out of their shop.
If anyone has any questions about the shop, just let me know. Also there is a price difference on labor between bringing a vehicle versus just the axle since I know this seems to not be the case with the shops around Columbia.