Ring and Pinion, to reset, remove or guess

[Hedgehog]

Down in the "What did you do with your CJ" thread there is an interesting and running discussion about an obviously loosely fit ring and pinion. The discussion really SHOULD have a thread all it's own. So, I'm inviting Woolly, Lumpy and the gang to bring their wisdom and photographs here for a deeper level of discussion this topic deserves. So, yes I suppose I'm forcing their hand, but this far to important a discussion not to leave in a light discussion thread, it needs technical in-depth seriousness.

 

[Lumpy Grits]

HH-As I said in the other thread. I don't have any pictures to show, wouldn't know how to post'em if I did.
What I do have, is about 50 years experience set'n up R&P's for all kinds of equipment like tractors, cars, semi-trucks etc. I was work'n 'under the table' for an outfit here for almost 20 yrs. Set up several R&P's a week for high HP cars and off road rigs.
First thing I look'd for in used gears are chip'd or broken teeth. The picture Wooly post'd show'd the 'coast' side of the ring gear and the pitting was minimum. There were no gouges(load bearing area)or chip'd gear teeth seen in those pictures.
As I also said about Wooly's gears, they weren't the best-BUT, I'd run'em.

Respectfully,
LG

 

[Woolyworm]

Okay - so I picked up a used powertrax no slip locker for my 76 AMC20 with 3.54 gears. I've owned the Jeep for about seven years. I'm running 33x12.5 Iroks with a 304, T18 with 6.32 granny, and a stock Dana 20 transfer case. Off road gearing is fine but 2nd gear starts are a little in the tall side so I've always thought a 4.10 gear would be better both on and off road. I store the jeep in the winter and daily drive in the summer and off road pretty much every weekend in the non snow months in Maine - lots of trails we run are in the 6-8 difficulty range with some higher.

So anyway, I pulled the cover on the axle to install the locker and this is what I found.

https://vimeo.com/156993806

I'm not a diff expert by any means but I have a fair amount of wrenching and fabrication under my belt and I stayed at a Holiday Inn the night before.... I didn't think that amount of play in the carrier bearings was healthy which several in this forum and several in my local club, Penobscot Valley Four Wheel Drive confirmed.

The diagnosis is that I don't have enough preload on the bearings which is controlled by shims between the bearing race and the diff case. Some believe it was redone by someone and not done properly and others believe the bearings have just worn out.

Further inspection shows what looks like to me as fairly significant general wear on the teeth and some gouging of the pinion teeth valley by the ring gear teeth from all of the wobbling around going on.

There are varying opinions about the condition of the gears from those on this site and in my club and I don't have the experience to know.








I chose to install the locker and run it for now with the intent of having 4.10s installed by a competent shop this summer. I don't hear any noise from the diff or has it exhibited any odd behavior.

I really appreciate everyone's input and time responding to my questions. Thanks.

Cheers!




Wooly

 

[Lumpy Grits]

Gear wear ain't bad-Don't see any burrs on the top of the gear.
With proper setup, it's still GTG.
IF you lived closer-I would be happy to do this setup for you. '20s' are super easy. The carrier shims go outboard of the bearings.

LG

 

[Woolyworm]

I'd probably have a little more ambition to tackle this if I didn't just finish a full front end rebuild on the wife's explorer . Thanks for the offer LG.


Wooly

 

[Hedgehog]

Yes I know I'm probably being annoying.....

Now that that is said. I would like to see the gears set up properly to see what the pattern looks like. As lumpy says, they might be in good enough running order and the pattern would prove that to be the case.

Edit: I see in your build thread that you've decided to go ahead and put the lunch box locker in and largely ignore the problem. Please be aware, the locker will add a huge amount of stress to your already compromised system. ..... sorry, but I can't help it.

 

[Woolyworm]

Read the bottom portion of my last post - I'm taking care of it the summer dad


Wooly