First time doing gears.....Swapping my 4:10 gears to 5:13. The 14 bolt was a breeze compared to the dana 60. I pretty much duplicated the shim packs in thickness and checked the pattern, looks like I have a long way to go. Before I even checked the pattern I could feel a huge amount of backlash and I knew it wasn't right. My new pinion didn't have any + or - markings on the face. Any suggestions?
When I rebuild my 60 and changed gears a buddy helped me that as done many and we used a tool he had that was made for a 60 it set the depth of pinion or maybe the position of ring gear I believe and then you should have a preload of maybe 15-25 inch pounds on pinion gear depends on if you have new or reusing old bearings I don't remember but there is a specific preload in inch pounds and it's a low number I had to barrow a low inch pound torque wrench for that part .
Sorry I can't be more specific but that's what I remember
To me it seems your pinion is too deep and the backlash is too far out. Move carrier towards pinion and pinion back to center it better on the ring gear. At least that what it looks like to me.
Sorry, backlash wasn't dealt with before the pattern. Was getting late at the shop last night and wanted to see what I had before I called it a night. Will get back to it tonight, thanks.
add shims to the ring gear side till you get the right back lash, then check your patten/start dicking with the pinion depth. youll probably have to do it all a time or two depening on how many tries it takes.
did you get a thick gearset? the carrier break for a dana 60 is 4:56. if i remember right a thick ring gear or ring gear spacer is required to even be close.
^^^^^^ What he said. Obviously the gears are not engaged enough. The ring gear needs to be moved toward the pinion and the pinion needs to go deeper into the ring.
Suggestions are reshim closer and check again, repeat till the pattern is correct.
I hope you have a set of honed out "fitting" bearings that slide on and off easily by hand.
Since this is your 1st attempt at gear setup on a Dana, it will take many trys, and "fitting" bearings speed up the process and eliminate pressing on, off and possibly damaging your good NEW bearings.
Always set the backlash to specs before making a pattern.
have you confirmed that you have the right ring gear for your carrier as suggested by sjracer. there is a split at 4.10. and that is what you were running so did you upgrade the carrier or purchase the 4.56 thick gears to compensate
thick gears will not work at all in a thin gear case. think about it. even if the difference in thickness isnt much, if its too thick it cant work, it wont fit together. you cant have negative back lash.
I do have the 4:10 and down carrier and I ordered the thick gear, but I just measured it and it looks like its .007 thicker than the 4:10 ring. I'm guessing it's supposed to be thicker than that?
the ring gear spacer's thickness is listed at .160 and is specifically for installing a 'thin' (4:56 and up) ring gear onto a 4:10 and down carrier. your measurement of .007 sounds to me like there is no real difference at all, and that you may have been sold a ring and pinion for a 4:56 and up carrier. i'm not a fan of just stacking shims behind one side of the diff, i would get the spacer or the right ring and pinion and do it over as .160 is a lot of shims just to get even close.
You guys need to relax a bit. PORC who used to be a vendor on here until they got banned, sold me this set 2 years ago. They obviously fucked up, which doesn't surprise me, but I should've inspected the parts when I got them. I ordered the thick ring for the 14 bolt and that went together fine on the carrier so I assumed that they sent a thick dana 60 ring also. Ordered a spacer. Problem should be solved shortly.
For someone with a truck on the lift, gear and locker sitting ready, this thread has been a huge help! With all of these helpful tips and how-to's I just cant wait to go out and get started! :shaking:
When the spacer comes in pull the ring gear off. Get your carrier bearing preload set by adding or removing backlash shims. Once the preload is set write down the overall measurement of all shims, this number must be kept to keep the preload kosher. With your pinion depth where it currently is, assemble the carrier and get your backlash setup, .006"-.010". Then run a pattern. Make any necessary adjustments according to the pattern. Go by the pattern to determine how drastic your changes are, consider. 010-.015 a considerable pinion depth adjustment. You are going to have to reset your backlash after every pinion depth adjustment. To ballpark your backlash after pinion depth change, move the carrier the same amount as the pinion. When making the depth shallower, or adding shims, you will need to space the carrier away from the pinion. When making the pinion deeper, or removing shims, you must move the carrier towards the pinion. Remember to keep the total measurement of backlash shims consistent for your carrier bearing preload
much better. I'll throw my worthless 02 in and say it's a little to far toward the heel. try to bring in the pinion a couple thousandths and lets see that.
as for the rest of you a'holes/bitches... keep it up! punk's not dead yet!
ide say add .005" to the pinion depth shims and youll propably be golden! remember, the toe is the strongest part of the gear, if the drive side favors the toe a little bit thats fine. the coast side is whats going to make the noise, try to get that dead centered between heel and toe. Notice the hard line between contact/no contact towards the root? that should feather out smoothly. bringing the pinion in a little bit should feather that line out, bring the coast up a hair and the drive down a hair, making it perfect
I was thinking more like .005", your real close but I don't think .002" would do it. I know how fun it is to change the pinion depth, I just did my 5.38's last week haha! And your shifting the carrier to the side, not the pinion
I am confused?
Is he shimming the pinion or the carrier?
Wouldn't the pinion move the contact in away from the heel?
I don't know is why I asked, not questioning any advise being given.
I was thinking more like .005", your real close but I don't think .002" would do it. I know how fun it is to change the pinion depth, I just did my 5.38's last week haha! And your shifting the carrier to the side, not the pinion
You must shim both. He has to add shims to the pinion to bring it closer to the ring gear, but because the shape of the pinion that is going to close up his backlash, so he must reset the backlash. This is one of the frustrating things about setting up gears. One minor change affects 10 other things, which then all have to be readjusted
This makes sense, pinion comes in, ring has to move away from pinion; pinion goes out ring has to move in towards pinion.
So, is it recommended to move ring over the same that the pinion moves in or out?
That depends on gear ratio, thick/thin gear, the brand of axle etc, But in most cases it works out to be about right, or get atleast within a row of assholes where you can make a more highly educated guessYou obviously want to verify your backlash everytime you adjust it.
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