Gear Setup Help

Looking for a little help. I took a couple of pics to see what my problem is. Background is I ran this front D60 for 4 years with stock welded 4.10's in it an never broke a ring gear. I changed to 5.13's and have broken two ring gears in two trips. This time I bought a Grizzly and Dana Spicer gears. So, Ive fought this setup for three solid nights now and can't get a good pattern. It's hard to get a good pattern by myself but I think you can still see in the pics my drive side is deep into the toe and the coast is on the heel. Pinion depth seems pretty good. Everything I read says decrease backlash. I started out trying to keep around .006 but am now at .003 or even less. I have changed pinion depth several times going both directions and nothing seems to be changing this problem short of taking out all backlash. Any ideas?????

you need more pinion shim.

I'll do it. I started with 35 thousandths like the 60 bible recommended and these pics are at almost 70. Don't know why this other pic didn't post. Taking the pinion deeper!

I would also check the pattern in a couples different places...

You've got the marking crap to thick. Wash it down and put just enough on it. To thick will give you inconsistent readings

All ideas appreciated. Any tricks to getting decent pattern by myself? Ive tried the rag with little luck and no wood wedge has worked. best is just Holding tension with one hand and turning with other. thats actually white lithium grease mixed with a little marking compund i had left. The grease is tough to get a mark at all so i did get it too thick.

Re: Re: Gear Setup Help

I use white spray paint if I don't have marking compound. I little gear oil mixed with the marking compound thins it out better than grease...

Put a box end wrench on ring gear bolt and work wrench back and forth. Like you were cutting something with a hacksaw kinda motion. Tip I got from Randy's ring and pinion. The rapid forward to reverse change should give you a more defined pattern.

Ahh. Great idea! Hadn't heard about that. Thanks for all of the responses everyone. I'm on the site every day just don't post much. A lot of sites see a low post count and just ignore.

is 0.004 ok for D60 backlash or too low? all i did was put a locker in mine, tried the same thickness shims that the stock carrier had and that's what it was. i thought from what i read in the Bible that it's in spec?

Should be good. .004-.009 is what the article says

thanks, sorry didn't mean to hijack your thread. are you loading it when you check the pattern?

Yea but got a good idea for better pattern a couple of posts up.

Ok so I did what Nick suggested as far as increasing pinion depth. I ran it in until it had no backlash with all the shims off of the ring side. I started backing the pinion out until I could get backlash and my pattern isn't changing. I've set up a few sets of gears and never had an issue like this. Still searching for ideas but starting to think these gears are cut wrong. ECGS originally sent me these gears with a 4:56 and up locker. With no shims on the carrier it was locked up. I called and they said they didn't know it but Dana had cut thick cut gears and not told them so he sent out a 4:10 down locker and now I'm fighting this......

Do you know anyone with a pinion depth tool?

No. But I've got the pinion as deep as it can possibly be right now and the gears still turn. I wish I had another set of thick cut gears to set beside these.

The pinion *may not match the ring gear

Where are you located at, maybe some one close to you does

Pull the carrier shims, then put it back in and slide it over until it touches the ring gear. I do that to get in the park.

Also Ive always thought you cant set backlash until pinion depth is right. Once you change pinion depth the backlash will change.




Also not sure if this is the case or not but the last 2 60s Ive done the yukon bearings races were different than stock and there wasnt enough shims to make up the difference.

Here's pic of the races. Old is on the right.

I finally got it to work by doing exactly that. My pinion was actually too deep and then my setup bearings and new bearings were different brands and different sizes just like your showing. A new bearing tomorrow and I think I'm good to go. Thanks for all the ideas, it was about to get a bullet!