Check my pattern please

[derekf]

New gears, new carrier, old housing.

Used the pinion shim the old gears had (.026)

.195 shims driver, .180 pass. Backlash looks to be about .008 but I'm not positive I'm reading it right.

Drive side:

171415

Coast side:

171416

Coast side is a little hard to read but if I'm reading this correctly - and I don't know that I am - I need a slightly thinner pinion shim?

[derekf]

Thinned out the compound and tried again.

Drive looks very similar:

171454

Coast side I don't know what to make of, it looks very even across the whole thing:

171455

Is this actually okay?

[sccacuda]

Wrap a towel around the yoke and twist and hold to create resistance. Turn the ring gear with a wrench from one of the ring gear bolts. Work the gear back and forth rapidly to make it pattern. Do this in several positions. This will give a true representation of pattern, just rolling the gear using the pinion will not.

With that said, aftermarket gears suck. They won't pattern the same around the circumference, which is usually due to the fact the backlash is 0.001-0.003" different from one side of the gear to the the other. I've never had an aftermarket gear give a "text book" pattern. You'll have to find a happy compromise.

Try putting the resistance on the pinion and see what your pattern looks like.

[derekf]

Thanks Craig! I'd not heard of doing it that way.

I went ahead and did at three roughly equidistant points:

171486171487171488

and

171489171492171493

They looked pretty similar to where I was before but maybe it'll come through in the image more clearly?

[sccacuda]

I can see the pattern better.
It’s pretty good. A thinner pinion shim would center your pattern instead of the slight offset heel/toe you have now, but your super close. Not sure it’s worth it, could run it as is with no issue.

[sccacuda]

And I see a big difference between the old pictures and the ones you just posted. If you didn’t change backlash between taking them, you can see how the two different ways change the pattern look.

[derekf]

Thanks again Craig... I was more thinking what I could see with the naked eye seemed the same but I'm glad you could make it out with the new ones.