Boss_Hotrod

That link many ways to set the pinion depth. There is also a little tool made by Ratech that is about $30 that would help also.

musclemustang94

cant u use the old crush sleeve to figure out how many shims you need? then check the contact pattern. Then put the new sleeve in and double check?

Edge_of_Sanity

yeah you usually can, also I reuse the shims usually. It hardly ever fails using the same shims. You also dont need a dial indicator, just a sheet of paper, white paint and black grease. People think doing rears is hard, its not. You DO need a way to get your bearings pressed on also.

musclemustang94

Yeah I am doing it at a shop. I have a friend whose dad owns a shop, he works full time for his dad. I think we can handle it. we are proably going to put the pinion in ice and heat up the bearing with torch (not directly lol) to get it off then slide it onto the new pinion (which will have been in the freezer) while its still warm. Should work right? How do you use a piece of paper to check back lash?

Mowin8603

someone told me that you can just take your whole pinoin out and have a shop install the gears in it and have them shim it and all that and then just reinstall it yourself into the rear end. this true?

Edge_of_Sanity

I dont think the freezer trick will work.. those f'rs are on there tight, Just take that to a machine shop to pull and press the bearings, if you put a torch to parts you can weaken them.. not a good idea for a rear.

To check backlash with paper you have to mark the ring/pinion with black grease. stick the paper in the gears as you rotate the assembly (after bolted to car) if the paper rips its too tight. If the paper goes in enough to firmly mark the paper with the pattern, you are good to go. Just make sure the pattern retains the rectangular shape for about 10 of the gears (in other words you will have a pattern of about 10 rectangles on your paper.. if the shape looks weird, your pinion depth is off, or shims are wrong. You have to usually take it all back out to add a shim or remove a shim, etc. It is not too hard, just take your time. A little backlash is a good thing btw. Just reuse your old shims and keep the new ones you got just incase you need to add, but its rare you need to.


Good luck

musclemustang94

I believe this shop has a press.

Edge_of_Sanity

No, you need the whole rear there to do the job. The shims go inbetween the posi, but without the housing there it would be impossible to know if its right. Thats why I said to reuse the old shims...

Unless you want to take the whole housing out, but thats too much work and the shop will charge you near the same as just bringing the car in.

iceman89gt

i would let a pro do it, i helped my cousin put in a rearend and we were told if it werent aligned you would have rear steering and like a hardhead we did it any way and he hit the guardrail first pass at the track. ive been scared to death of the rearend since. i let the bigboys do it, plus you dont want to kill those brand new gears.

Edge_of_Sanity

rear steering?? Was the posi burned out? a gear install shouldnt make it steer, thats all in the posi not locking correctly cause the ring is bolted to the posi.