Ok so I am putting some 4.88 gears in my 84 pickup, this is the pattern I have come up with on the rear and well on the drive side I think that the first and 4th tooth of the paint look pretty good, but the center 2 look a little bit different than the other ones. My question is, How does this look for a pattern? should it be set a bit deeper? The coast side picture almost looks too deep, but those center two on the drive side look a bit shallow? I dont know I'm kinda confusing my self I think so I'm just going to stop typing now. Haha oh btw I just put the stock shim back in as a starting point.

 

You think you can do better than that, huh? How many tries did that take anyway?

If it were mine, I think I'd be plenty happy with those results. But, perhaps, the ever slightest bit deeper would be "perfect".

That shim might work fine. Looks maybe too thick, though. Yeah, on second thought try one the next size skinnier. Trying to move the contact patch back a bit towards the heel and deeper. Looks too much toward the the toe end. You know what I'm sayin' there?

Yeah, try the shim. Sorry I had to think that one through. It's been a little while since I fussed with my gears.

 

alright i will do that here in the next couple days, any suggestions as to about how much shim to add?

 

Not thicker, skinnier, I wanna say like .002-.003 less than that one.

That will put the pattern deeper and towards the heel end. Not too much, I hope.

Where's ZUK(http://gearinstalls.com/)when we need him? He's got all the experience setting gears up. Could probably tell you exactly how much less shim you'd need.

Oh well, you'll have to settle for the advice of another novice for now. Sorry, I can't reassure you any more than that.

Good luck.

 

That guy has some amazing write ups.

and for the record i think you are doing a good job helping out. (not that i know if your right) the best times working on cars have always been just banging heads with my buddies figuring it out.

 

That's good enough for the girls I go with. There's no reason to be unsatisfied with that. Drop two thouy out on the shims and your good to go.

 

I was partly wrong, did some more reading. Less shim will move the contact patch towards the heel end and shallower. Not DEEPER, oops. So, maybe that ain't the way to go.

Maybe that is about as good as your gonna get where it's at now. I hope so at this point. Then I can say, "see I knew it looked pretty good to begin with".

 

Good save, Mudhippy. I was about to correct your post above, but read on to see that you corrected it yourself.

Anyways, I wouldn't touch it. The pattern is excellent.

A few other points... Did you get your backlash in spec? Did you get some good preload on your carrier bearings (adjusters torqued to 125-150 ft lb)? Did you install a solid pinion collar or a new crush sleeve? Either way, did you set your pinion preload correctly? Other than that... I'd say your good to go.

 

ok so all is set up and installed and i have been working at breaking them in. My question is, how hot should the differential be getting? I drive it for about 5 miles and it gets hot enough that when i hold my hand on it for a few seconds it feels pretty hot. I looked at the break in instructions on gearinstalls.com but i'm unsure as to how hot "Hot to the touch" so i was just wondering how hot i can go/should go to prevent damage to the gears. oh and i have about 70 ish miles on them as of now.

thanks
Adam