[andrewsg]

I have swapped 3.27s, 3.55s and 3.73s. I never had an issue -- Here I am with a big one though. I am currently doing a set of 4.10s.

I have found that at my current shim amount that if I have the bearing caps torqued down and I try to spin the ringgear by hand -- that it is impossible. I cannot remember if I had the caps on the last time ive done gears. Thats really the situation.When I check the wear pattern; am I supposed to have the caps torqued down?

If so -- then I have a problem, as the ring gear will not spin by hand if the caps are torqued down. But if i shim down on the pinion head, my wear pattern is off like hell (but my backlash is correct) -- if I check my wear pattern now with the caps on but not torqued (just on there, not tight) that the wear pattern is perfect as is the backlash, but when I go ahead and torque it down, I cant spin nor check a damn thing.

So all in all -- if the caps are supposed to be torqued down when I check the wear pattern, then I'm screwed because it wont move, and if I have to shim down on the pinion gear, I'm screwed as well since the wear pattern shows i need more shims.

I did my last set of gears 5-6 years ago and really can't remember a goddamn thing.

Cliffnotes:

Do the carrier bearing caps need to be torqued down when checking wear pattern?

If they don't -- great I'm set -- if they do -- where the hell do I go/what do i do now?


Sorry for the confusing post.

Best Regards,
Gered

[BIG G]

did you reuse the shim under the pinion bearing , big one near gear? also you need to torque the caps to i think 85 ft lbs , if the rear end was set up correctly from the factory the pinion shim will be correct for the life of the housing, if not , most ford dealers have the correct tools to get the correct shim, big G

[andrewsg]

Yes I reused the factory shim and it was too shallow, the pinion had to be shimmed out/up more.

I think im just going to press it off again, try to find a few .005 shims. and go from there.

-G