Installing gears myself this weekend.

I am looking for write ups on gear installations. I have a pretty decent write up from a guy on superstallions.com. I also went and bought a Haynes manual today but it did not cover replacing the ring and pinion or disasembly of the rear end. Anyone know of a manual I can refer to or a good write that may help.

Thanks,
Chris

I have a dial indicator with magnetic base and a bearing separator and puller just for your information. The job is not that difficult it just requires some precision and a few hand tools that most people do not have. What I am really asking is if anyone knows of a manual or a write up that will assist me in the disassembly and reassembly of the rear end. Thanks for your help.

daver01 said:

first, i wouldn't do it, if i were u. but i'm not, so here's a walkthrough.

8.8 gear install

make sure u have the right tools. u gotta get backlash/shim just right or u will have dreaded whine. good luck.

(you = doomed)

Click to expand...

By the way, thanks for the write up daver01. I will give you guys an update next week if I have time to start the job this weekend.

Can someone explain to me steps 5,and 7. I cannot comprehend how to measure the backlash with the dial indicator as I have never used one before. Also, I need more detail on how to "setup the dial indicator to check the run-out of the ring gear". Can someone define run-out? May be when I have the dail indicator in hand it may make more since how to use it to take these measuremnts.

"We will install the ring gear similarly to the pinion bearing, heat it up with boiling water and then draw it in with 5 of the bolts. This to me was the hardest part just because of the weight and needing to align the bolt holes up properly. To remove the old ring gear, use a press, a dead blow hammer or a brass punch to tap it out--moving around the gear to get it out evenly.

1. Using some 300 grit or so sandpaper, sand down both the back of the ring gear, and the mounting surface on the differential it sits on. This will remove any high spots, which could throw off run-out and cause whining.

2. Heat up the ring gear with the boiling water. Line up the bolt holes and slide the gear as far down as it will go. Install 5 bolts in a star pattern. Tighten them down in a star pattern like you do for installing a tire. Do this evenly until the ring gear is fully seated. Remove the 5 bolts and put loc-tite on the bolts and re-install. Torque ring gear bolts to 70-85 foot pounds in stages. (See figure 20 and 21)

3. Pickup the old shims and bearing races, remember you marked these earlier as to what side they came from. Install the races onto the bearings and put the shims in place. Now slide the differential into place. It should be a little tight, where you would need a rubber mallet to get them in.

4. Install main bearing caps and torque to 70-85 LB/ft of torque.

5. Setup dial indicator to measure backlash. The spec is .008-.015, I recommend shooting for .010-.012 See picture (See figure 22)

6. If you don’t come in correctly and have too much lash, you need to move some shims from the right side over to the left. Whatever you take from the right, you install onto the left. If you have too little lash, the opposite is true, take from left, and add to right. Do this until you get the backlash within spec.

7. Now setup the dial indicator to check the run-out of the ring gear. You want to setup the dial indicator to read the back of the ring gear, the part that sits on the differential. You should have no more than .004” of run-out."

Most everyone is so quick to say this should be left up to the pro's. Well the pro's you speak of were just like you one day. You have to wanna learn. Never-the-less, thanks to all who contibuted information.