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Alex Denysenko
Co-Administrator and Moderator

NHRA/IHRA/SRA member and licensed Superstock driver
MCA member# 53321
NHRA and IHRA SS/LA National Record Holder '00,'01,'02,&'03
First SS/MA in the TENS!
Fleet of FoMoCo products including 88 ASC McLaren Mustang #28
Professional Manwhore
The Barry of BarrysGrrl

Quote #1: "I never met a magazine mechanic I liked."
Quote #2: "Make sure brain is in gear before engaging mouth!"
Quote #3: "If you can't run with the big dogs, stay on the porch!"
www.moneymakerracing.com

Although an inch pounds scaled torque wrench is nice for checking the pinion bearing preload when tightening the yoke down against the crush sleeve, you can get by with out the torque wrench by setting the preload with just a light tension or drag on the bearings. This operation needs a little experience if not using a torque wrench or strain gauge. If you're doing this by the book, then 15 in/lbs for used bearings and 25 in/lbs for new ones. Pinion depth determines exactly where the drive and coast patterns will allign themselves on the ring gear while gear backlash will move the patterns up and down from the toe to the heel portion of the ring gear teeth. You'll set the coast and drive tooth patterns by changing the shim(s) located between the pinion support and the case. Referring to the sheet that comes with the gears will show you the desired tooth pattern and that same sheet typically shows you the extreme patterns and which way to move the pinion through use of shims to get back to the desired pattern. After getting the tooth pattern where you want it, then just set the back lash to spec and make sure all bolts and spanner nuts are tight.

You'll still need to tackle pulling and installing bearings. For myself, I built my own press that does both operations and uses a 12 ton bottle jack. There's still auto part stores that do the bearing work as a side line along with brake drum and rotor turning, so they would be an option to dealing with the bearings. Although new bearings are always nice, I do not find it a problem to reuse bearings and races that look okay. If the race shows pitting, then be sure to throw away the bearing that was riding on it also as the pitting on the rollers may not show up in a cursory examination.

If you feel your mechanically competent in this area, then tackle it. It's still recommended to have someone familiar with this operation looking over your shoulder while you're doing this for the first time. Although I'd normally say for you to take this to someone who knows what they're doing, setting up you're own ring and pinion builds up your confidence level in tackling this kind of project. On the other side of the coin are the people setting up gears that are no more competent than you are at this stage and will sluff off the failure to a faulty gear set. If you get someone else to do it, by all means make sure they come with high recommendations. These same people can probably tell you what brand of gears will likely have the highest level of success also. If you're looking for the cheapest person out there to do the job, then you could very easily get exactly what you paid for.

Oops. Caught myself rambling.

One thing that isn't absolutely necessary but nice, is a ring and pinion depth tool by tavia or proform. ( I think, can't remember who makes the set I have ) Anyway, it makes the job go quicker and easier. You can get some marking compound from Summit. I think Rayteck ( spelling ) makes a bearing and shim kit with marking compound & gaskets.

If you use gears that have been "marked" and run in for you be sure to double check the pattern even though they give you the depth and backlash figures.

Good Luck.