•A nonlinear tribo-dynamic model of a spur gear drive under run-dry condition is built.•Temperature rise and tooth wear are included in the proposed model.•Friction coefficient is predicted based on computational inverse technique.•The natural frequency is evidently affected by the flexibility of shaft but friction.•Tooth wear not only aggravates gear vibration but also changes the phase of DTE. Gearbox is required to serve for ≥ 30 min in helicopter design to improve survivability, when the gear drive loses lubrication due to battle damage. Under such loss-of-lubrication condition, tooth friction, wear and temperature pose serious problems to dynamic performance of gears. Therefore, a nonlinear tribo-dynamic model of spur gear drives is established and experimentally validated in this work. The time-varying friction coefficient is predicted under loss-of-lubrication condition on the basis of computational inverse technique. The temperature rise and tooth wear caused by friction were included by using thermal network model and dynamic wear model. The flexibility of gear shafts and the gyroscopic effect of gear rotors are also considered. The results indicate the gyroscopic effect apparently affects the natural frequency of the gear drive, while friction has negligible effect on the natural frequency but has considerable effect on the nonlinear behavior. The influence of temperature and gyroscopic effect on nonlinear behavior are reflected in the region of middle and high speed, while tooth wear mainly affects the bifurcation at the middle speed. In addition, tooth wear not only aggravates gear vibration but also can change the phase of dynamic transmission error. The analysis and experiment results can be an important reference in reducing friction and wear, restraining nonlinear behavior, and reducing vibration and noise.