mjr46

you'll have to get it back in the same spot so the wear pattern is the same as before or possibley risk some howl, but you may get lucky and it come out okay

94ford5liter

I actually happen to have a 1997 stock cobra rear end laying around because my brother is putting it in his 70 mach 1. I'm almost done making a pinion depth tool that mounts with the differential cap bolts.

It is an original one with 3.27s so I'm going to measure the pinion depth in that rear end then get mine to match up with that one. Hopefully it works. I still have some axle movement out the passenger side so I figure the pinion depth needs to come towards the ring about .005 so then I can move the backlash over a similar amount more to the driver side.

mjr46

umm that's not how you do it, you don't compare 1 rear settings to another, not all housings are spot on .....pinion depth does not affect axle movement, axle movement is often a result of the clutches in the rear end wearing, some end play is normal....good luck............