What do you think of this gear pattern??! First timer!

[jenkins71]

Hi guys! I'm just getting ready to wrap up my bearing replacement job on my 8 3/4 center section. It is a 741 with 3.55's and cone sure grip.

What do you think of the pattern? I re-used the same gears that were in there, just replaced all the bearings and the front seal. Replaced the old Timkens with new Timkens. So, I reused the bearing shims and the depth shims--which amounted to 2 bearing shims and ZERO depth shims (it had none in it when I took it apart).

This is my first tiem doing this, so I'm not sure if my pattern is good or a little off!

Coast side looks about perfect to me:



And the drive side looks good for the most part, but MAYYYBE just a tad too far to the outside (Heel?) of the ring:



And if I do have to add shim--- That means I have to take it all apart and go BACK to the machine shop and have them press the bearings off AGAIN? And then put the shim in and have the machine shop AGAIN press the bearings BACK on? What a P.I.T.A!

Thanks for any input!

SAM

 

[Yatzee]

That's going to be one noisy rear end. Firstly, don't use so much indicator dye because it has to be removed between adjustments and reapplied to the face of the gears only. Shoot for the center of the teeth and about midway in depth.Your pinion appears a bit shallow in one pic but a bit deep in the other indicating that the ring gear needs to move over a tad. What a tedious job - there's a jig out there in cyber space that sets depth for the pinion that you can buy. Get that one right and the ring gear adjustment is a breeze.

 

[furyus]

I'll let others comment on the pattern. But if you have to take it apart again, take the old bearing, and hone out the inside until it's a tight slip fit. That way you can check how the shims will work out without pressing the new bearing on and off.

 

[uwss]

doesn't look center contact to me.

 

[jenkins71]

Okay, so if I need to move the ring gear over... Isn't that measured by just checking for backlash with the dial indicator ? Which i thought I had within spec?

 

[MarPar]

{paging Cranky. paging Cranky...Cranky would you please pickup the white courtesy phone.}

 

[Cranky]

I hate looking at patterns....but that one doesn't look too good to me. And do what furyus says below but it doesn't have to be a tight slip fit....just so long as it's not sloppy. .0005 (half a thou) will slip on and off fairly easily and will still give you a good read. Also, look over the charts and pics here. Scroll down some. http://www.richmondgear.com/pdf/cat-33.pdf

I'll let others comment on the pattern. But if you have to take it apart again, take the old bearing, and hone out the inside until it's a tight slip fit. That way you can check how the shims will work out without pressing the new bearing on and off.

{paging Cranky. paging Cranky...Cranky would you please pickup the white courtesy phone.}

I picked it up but no one is there

- - - Updated - - -

On a side note, I bought a setup tool back in the early 80's and after the pattern on my first build didn't look right, I plugged the chunk into my car for a test run. Sure it's lots of work but it confirmed the setup was right. I did that on next 3 builds because I just wasn't trusting the tool quite yet or what the patterns looked like lol. So far, no one has ever came back complaining of gear whine. Now I've had a couple that you could barely hear but I've had a brand new pickup that came from the factory with a very slight gear whine and well, it was there all the way past 100k miles. You couldn't hear it unless you listened hard for it tho. If you put yours together and it's kinda loud, it'll stay that way unless you fix it and if it is kinda loud, DO NOT break them in with them making noise.

 

[Cranky]

Did you open up the SureGrip unit to check the wear on the cones?

 

[jenkins71]

Did you open up the SureGrip unit to check the wear on the cones?

Yeah, I did, looked okay I guess... If I need to tear it apart in the future and machine the cones down, will whatever shim arrangement I end up with now be okay to put back in later?

Took the pinion to the machine shop, he looked at my pictures and made a "guess" for amount of shim, then pressed the bearing off and put 42 thousands worth of shim in and pressed the bearing back on. For free, which was cool. And lent me some blueing compound because he said it would be better than the yellow dye. He wouldn't hone my bearing. He said that would be dangerous in the vehicle...
So we made a wild guess and now we will see what I come up with, and hopefully I won't need to come back.

 

[bm02tj]

the honing is for the old bearing not the one you drive with and for set up only

 

[jenkins71]

Ah, now I see. Well, we will see how this gets set up with the new shim pack. If I'm lucky, we are all good. I HOPE. it's a roll of the dice really. Probably will have to take the bearing off again
Any tip about setting the backlash and moving the ring gear with the side adjusters? Seriously, ANYTHING. The shop manual isn't much help, neither is that Mopar Muscle article!
Thanks!
Sam