ok i have axle dilema that i need advice on.

heres the deal..1981 waggy amc20. was stock, 2.72 gears (now gone)
bought a used detroit, and 4.10's for it, installed, heard bad noises, and 5 teeth are chipped on the R&P now.

it turns out the detroit has .003 of runout, also causing the ring gear to have runout. ok, new carrier...so i acquired a welded diff for use with deeper gears.

installed 4.10's with the welded diff, ring gear still has .003 of runout...wtf.

tried the detroit in another housing to see if my housing was bad, or if it was the detroit...detroit still has runout.

so, it looks like i have an out of round detroit, and possibly ring gear...and i need to get these issues resolved asap...no vehicle to use as myjeep is just sitting.

what do i do? here are some ideas ove gotten.

1) its looking like i have to buy a new ring and pinion...mainly because the ring gear has .003 of runout on the differnet differential...so...

buy a new R&P, and a new detroit. probably 800 dollars once detroit, gears, and install kit is done and installed

2) buy a new R&P and use the welded diff....i dont really WANT to do this, because well...welded diff + DD = not fun (or so i hear)

3) get a totally new rear axle with 4.10's in it already. i was thinkin an exploder 8.8 with 4.10's and discs, but the issue of bolt pattern arises. exploder is 5x4.5, and my front waggy 44 is 6x5.5. i could get spacer/adapters for the rear to make it 5x5.5...probably about 200 for them, then i need to convert the front to 5x5.5 (new spindle, hub, maybe rotor, and bearings...probably close to 300 for all that new).

so what do you think i should do? im kinda lost here and i want to drive my jeep. i would prefer to have a locker in the rear, for DD purposes, so i would either have to buy a new carrier, and lunchbox it, or buy a full case locker.

.003 is not much. Take your locker to a machine shop and have them true it up. Once they jig it up in a lathe it will not take as long as turning a brake rotor and .003 removed from carrier will not hurt it. Have them mount and check the runout on your ring gear and take it from there.

what surface to take it out from?

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid202/pe089dbc031c278f39539a8f2e310a5a8/efd70896.jpg

i have a feeling it should be the yellow area i drew, but i just want to make 100% sure

anyone?

I don't know if that will work, to true it up on that yellow line. Seems like the ring gear bolts will locate the ring gear. Have you tried talking to Detroit. I wonder if .003 is bad enough to cause your problem. I know you posted bout this before. Sure seems to be a very weird problem.

I doubt .003 runout is a problem. According to Billavista gear setup writeup (http://www.pirate4x4.com/articles/tech/billavista/Gear_Setup):

d) Backlash should be 4-9 thou, with no variance greater than 2 thou. If you cannot get consistent readings it is advisable to use the dial indicator to check the axial and lateral run-out of both the ring-gear and the carrier mounting flange to determine where the problem lies. If neither exhibits run-out of greater than 2-3 thou, the problem may lie in the housing.

Soooo 3 thousands run out is acceptable.

Or you could just buy a real axle, like a 60 and dump the turd:flipoff2:

no, its not backlash its adding/subtracting...its pinion depth because the ring gear moves in and out...not side to side

Ah, got ya. You could try trueing up the carrier by machining your yellow line, but in reality like xjco said the ring gear bolts really located the ring gear on the carrier, so it probably won't fix anything.

If it were me I'd run it cuz at the end of the day I doubt 3 thou is really gonna mess it up that much.

You can't machine the housing to get rid of the out of round (the ring gear will not have a surface to seat on). I would set it up alittle loose and run it. .003 shouldn't be a problem. My guess is it was set up too tight and chipped the gears when it got hot under load.

it was too loose when we took it apart the first time. got it back to .005 of backlash, and it still made the noise it made. it makes it once per revolution, where the ring gear goes in .003 and i think is why it chipped the gears, unless the excess of backlash chipped the gears when it went from drive to coast, since the chips were only on the coast side

of course too loose will break stuff too, no mater the runout.