KillJoy

Take the gears off the donor carrier, install them on your carrier and slap them in. If you're saying it can't be done I'd assume you've never attempted a gear swap before.

cliffyk

I do not believe anyone in this thread has said it cannot be done...

69MustangCoupe393cid

I could do that, but why spend the time ripping it out of the ex, and put in used gears when I can have new and no labor for 100 more? The part I was trying to avoid was the shimming and all that because I have heard of stories where people can't get it right.

cliffyk

Anyone that cannot get the pinion depth and backspacing right should not be doing the job in the first place--it's not difficult, it just requires attention to detail and a bit of math...

Here is one of the better tutorials I've seen...

69MustangCoupe393cid

That's my problem, I don't know that I trust myself working on my DD. When I built the engine for my SHO (learned how to do it) it took a long time but I had another car to drive. I also don't want to pay the money decent shops around here want to install. So more than likely no gears for me haha. Oh well I should be saving for a Cobra anyway... or a house... nope definitely Cobra.

Jay-rod427

Shimming everything is super easy just time consuming.

69MustangCoupe393cid

Not on your back in the driveway haha. I know I could do it, I just tend to have bad luck and nothing ever works out right the first time.

KillJoy

If you put the used gears on your carrier, there would be no shimming.

69MustangCoupe393cid

Then why do you have to shim new gears that get put on the carrier that's already in the car? Sounds like there's no difference.

cliffyk

This is emphatically NOT so, the carrier shims are there because each differential case is dimensionally slightly different, as is each installed pinion's depth and relationship to the carrier bearing bosses once installed. The carrier shims are the last bit of adjustment to ensure proper contact of the pinion and ring gears.

One could perhaps get lucky and find that the shims as used the the donor or destination housings allowed proper backlash and contact pattern--however that would be a long shot...