So I'm building a 8.8 right now for my 92 and I finished up with the trac loc unit tonight and got the races for the pinion in and wheel bearings in and my question is: I've always heard not sure if it's a myth or not that the ford racing gears reuse factory shims for easy set up..???? anyone got any LINKS TO SUCH CLAIM??????????....mine are real ford racing ones not made by motive!!!......and I'm not really concerned with setting up the rear as I have the correct factory tools to set up and measure for the shim for the pinion bearing.......and dial indicator for backlash and inch lbs wrench for pinion preload on crush collor....just WANTED to see if any one has any such articles

 

When I installed my Ford racing 3.73's from the factory 2.73's I was able to reuse the factory pinion shim but I had to add shims to the drivers side of the carrier and take away from the passenger side to get .010" backlash. It has been a couple of years since I put them in so I can't remember the exact amount. Have fun with the crush sleeve, I had to use a cheater bar laying on my back tourqing the pinion nut to get the proper preload on the pinion bearings, good times

 

^^^^^^^ahhh crush sleeve will be easy..screw the breaker bar deal...small blips on the IR 231 FTW!!!..i ACTUALLY HAVE ALL THE FACTORY rotunda tools for checking pinion depth.....just wanted to see if the myth is true......were your gears noisey at all??

 

we reused ours too when I did my gear install, no whining and works great! went from 3.08 to 3.73

 

cool!!!! that's what was in this 8.8 ....3.08's....I'll try it and then compare it to my tool and see how accurate it is

 

neighbor went from 2.73's to 4.10's and reused shims, no noise.

 

I've re-used the carrier shims three times on different builds. Just got to make sure you install on the same side they came out of.

 

Same here, re-used the shims, like fastblack said re-install on the same side. I went from stock 3:08s to Ford Racing 3:73, they set-up beautifuland no noise.

 

iinstalled the ford racing 3.73's as well. reused all the factory shims. no noise or anything.

 

well not gonna happen in my case..did the set up this evening and have to finish it all tommorrow but to make a long story short ...the heel contact was low and high toe contact on the coast side with factory .017 pinion shim....gotta add some more shim to get correct contact pattern and do it in .003 increments and the carrier shims allowed for too much back lash .016 to be exact not the optimalrange of .008 to .012 so I'll be resetting it up in the morning..I corrected the backlash but pinion depth is a little off still[:@]