Gear pattern check

MtnRanger160

MtnRanger160

TJ Enthusiast
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Joined
Nov 29, 2017
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146
Location
Clarksville, TN
Please help me confirm I’m set up right or need to adjust. The only swap was on an open diff to an LSD. gears were swapped out about 3 years ago by an off-road shop. The first pic is drive side, second is coast. Backlash set to .004-.005 based on measurement taken before swapping the diff. I have not messed with the pinion at all, just the carrier bearings

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Come on where are all the gear setup guru's at???? It looks a little to much toe on the coast side to me but I'll error to those with more experiance.
 
Thanks @Wildman haha. I feel the coast is pretty tight too. And that diff is locked in there!!! I broke two ratchets straps yesterday trying to get it out so I'll need to find another method. The manual calls for .005-.008 and I'm right at the minimum threshold. If I increase backlash on ring side by .002 I may be more in tolerance.....I think
 
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If you're looking for a method to get the carrier out, Blaine taught the following to me years ago and it works really well. It uses a combination box-end/open-end wrench on a ring gear bolt to lever the carrier out of the housing.

Attach the box-end of the wrench to one of the carrier bolts, then use a long pry bar or long screwdriver to turn the pinion in the direction that rotates the carrier so the wrench won't loosen the bolt when it gets to the housing. Then keep rotating the pinion so the screwdriver/pry bar levers the carrier out of the housing.

It's kinda surprising how well it works. I just passed that along to another Jeeper last week and he was all excited how well it worked. He had tried all kinds of methods earlier and nothing else worked.
 
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Jerry Bransford said:
If you're looking for a method to get the carrier out, Blaine taught the following to me years ago and it works really well. It uses a combination box-end/open-end wrench on a ring gear bolt to lever the carrier out of the housing.

Attach the box-end of the wrench to one of the carrier bolts, then use a long pry bar or long screwdriver to turn the pinion in the direction that rotates the carrier so the wrench won't loosen the bolt when it gets to the housing. Then keep rotating the pinion so the screwdriver/pry bar levers the carrier out of the housing.

It's kinda surprising how well it works. I just passed that along to another Jeeper last week and he was all excited how well it worked. He had tried all kinds of methods earlier and nothing else worked.
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This is exactly what I did!!! Worked like a charm.
 
It was your response I saw to someone else when I found that solution. Could’ve been this forum, I don’t remember. But I’ve been popping the diff in and out for about an hour playing go with shims and I think I’m settled now. At least I hope
 
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Well, played around with shims for about an hour and pretty much back where I ended up but with more shim width to the ring gear side. Brought my drive side to the center and the coast side is ever so slightly pushed to the center. BL is .005. It could be the way the 4wheel shop set the pinion. Gonna try to Add to ring gear side and subtract from button side and see if that helps.

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Ok, I’ve effectively managed to get the backlash back to .004-.005 and the gears feel really smooth. Almost no change to the pattern though. I’m happy with it and I’m going to roll it this way. Everything I’ve read said desirable contact pattern is center/center but coast can be more on the toe, which is where I’m at.
 
If you are re-using gears, run a pattern before taking it apart and take pictures of it. After swapping the carrier/locker, try to match the pattern. I always start off with the shim stacks exactly as they were originally as that should be very close if not the desired set up. If all you did was swap your ring gear from one carrier to another, then I would get the backlash the same as it was before. With all that being said, I can't say I'd run that because I don't know what it looked like prior to that.
 
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hosejockey61 said:
If you are re-using gears, run a pattern before taking it apart and take pictures of it. After swapping the carrier/locker, try to match the pattern. I always start off with the shim stacks exactly as they were originally as that should be very close if not the desired set up. If all you did was swap your ring gear from one carrier to another, then I would get the backlash the same as it was before. With all that being said, I can't say I'd run that because I don't know what it looked like prior to that.
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Now I wish I had done that before disassemble. It seems very tedious at this point to reinstall bearings on the old diff to view a pattern.
 
hosejockey61 said:
If you are re-using gears, run a pattern before taking it apart and take pictures of it. After swapping the carrier/locker, try to match the pattern. I always start off with the shim stacks exactly as they were originally as that should be very close if not the desired set up. If all you did was swap your ring gear from one carrier to another, then I would get the backlash the same as it was before. With all that being said, I can't say I'd run that because I don't know what it looked like prior to that.
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I did use the old shims in the same spot but the BL came out very high that it wasn’t worth even running a pattern check
 
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Trying to setup used gears is always a trial and error thing. Back when I was first building my TJ I bought used gears since I couldn't afford new ones. I ran them for almost 3 years but they were never right.
The other thing to note is that used gears have a different backlash number than new gears. I looked and couldn't find it but I know they are different.
 
A carrier swap isn’t going to change your pattern so long as the backlash is the same. Seems to me your pattern concerns really stem further back than this repair.
 
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