red95gtconvert

That's kind of how it worked out for me too, using the factory carrier shims I had way to much backlash, after reshiming a few times I ended up with .010" backlash and called it good. My gears came out of my f150 and had about 8K miles so they have a slight whine at 1400 rpms but not reallybad at all. I've had them in the carfor about 9K miles and so far so good.

mjr46

I could probably get away with the pinion depth as is but I don't want any whine whatsoever so I'm just gonna spend the extra time to reset it up again

blwn93gt

yeah, gears are something you want to take your time doing and not skip any steps. if mine would have been off i would be doing the same thing that you are. atleast your gonna take the time to do it right.

dimebag

you measure ****? damn... we did mine by feel lol... atleast you did them the right way

i went from 3.27s to 3.73s in my 02, reused all the shims and its perfect, no noise no nothing, backlash was awesome as was everything else

gotta love how that works out.... most of the time

mjr46

well I do have the expensive factory depth checker, dial indicator and digital micrometer......however, I'm disappointed in it as according to the set up with tool it needed a .019 to .021 shim depending on what one deems as slight drap between the tool checking surface...anyway when I set it up as such the coast side had high heel contact and drive side pattern was a little on the low side of toe contact..so I added a shim today (.026)= total shim under bearingand finally came up with a tooth contact pattern that was acceptable.......I took a new pinion bearing and reamed out inside so it's slide over pinion esay to make removal quick to reduce set up time then once all patterns were good and backlash came in at .0075 spec .008-.012......I set the preload on pinion and set crush collar and preloaded ended up at 27 in lbs spec 16-29 for new bearing and then I set preload on carrier and rechecked pattern and all looked good...as much time as I spent setting this up to the "T" knowing my luck it'll whine!!!![:'(]...but I hope not!! whole rear end is rebuilt all new bearings and clutches in trac lock and new control arms going in to..also put a new pinion flange on so it won't leak I hope.....anyway seems like all those who don't use the tools luck out..as for me ???we'll see!!!!