Jackfit

We are now installing the pinion bearing. Gary's comments:

"Here I installed the new USA Timken pinion races in the housing"







Checking work

Jackfit

While I am waiting for the rear end to be completed, I am rehabbing the transmission. I did not want to take it apart, so here is the story.

I had removed the transmission last week to both adjust the linkage and to replace the rear seal and bearing. I did not want to take the case apart and in one of the recent posts, John Z mention a tool that would allow you to change the seal and rear bearing while the tranny was still in the car. I located the tool on E-bay and although my tranny is out of the car, I left the shift on to show it can be done .

My old slip yoke had 300,000 miles on it and it shows it.

I only have to use this tool once, so if you need it PM me.



My new slip yoke and balanced drive shaft



The tool to extract the rear bearing , with seal removed



Close up of tool



Rear Bearing , the tool slides in just like a yoke



I use a hose clamp to compress flanges of tool , edges grab bearing



Use wrench to extract bearing , bolt pushes on tail shaft , pulling bearing



Bearing pulled out





Can be done with tranny in car and not taken apart

Jackfit

Gary Ramadei is putting the final touches on the rear end he is building for me. He discovered excess run out in the posi unit. Here are his comments and process to reduce run out to his specs.

Hi Jack,
So as I mentioned yesterday there was a wide range of lash in the setup. I wanted to see if it was in the gears or the posi case. I removed the ring gear from the posi and checked the bare posi in the housing. I checked a few places; the posi flange where the RG mounts, the case OD where the RG ID is press fit, and the flange OD. I found the case OD was good with only 001" or less runout in it but the flange had 006" runout and the flange OD had 008". The flange OD doesn't matter but the case OD & face do. I set the posi up in the lathe using a small 4 jaw chuck to dial in case OD as my reference. I dialed the case OD to less then 001" and rechecked the flange run out in the lathe and it was out 006". I faced the flange 005 in small passes and turned the flange OD. In the lathe they were both 0 but I knew it would open up in the housing because it will be referenced off the case bearings.

"I found the caps were loose on the bearing races and set them up to 001" gap. Then I installed the bare case and found the flange runout 002 which is good. The case OD is still 001 and the Flange OD is under 001". I was able to keep the case bearings installed without issue. The lash is now within 002-003 compared to 006 before. I couldn't do a pattern test because I have to let the Loctite setup on the RG bolts again. Next up I will check the pattern to see how it looks. I did radius the edges of the teeth on the RG, this is an old blueprinting trick.

I will see how the pattern looks on Monday."


This video is an example of what he did to my unit. Just click on it



Pictures







On milling machine



Caps

tuxnharley

What a great example of quality workmanship! Thanks for posting all of this.

Westlotorn

Jack, I hope Gary is not reading this because that is starting to look like the $5,000 differential rebuild. You should have the smoothest axle in the Nation when it is done.
Hope it goes another 300,000 miles for you. Tell him to hurry up driving weather is here now and your car never sleeps.

Jackfit

Hi Tux,

The strut rod bushings are in the mail. I hope you can give them to someone who needs them or use them for item to auction for charity.

Thank Chris Dana, " Tossin " on the forum. He donated them to me , but I had mixed rods, so I order new ones with bushing installed.

Jack

tuxnharley

Hi Jack -

I think you have me mixed up with someone else, but thanks anyway!

Glenn

Jackfit

I may....just sent you a message, forget it about the bushings, I thanked you , but sent the bushings to the right person...

Getting old can be a bitch...

Jack

Jackfit

Here are more photos of the build of my rear end by Gary Ramadie and his comments on Pattern.

Hi Jack
Here is the pattern. Now what you will see is the pattern is center to toe, which is how these gears typically set up, unlike "textbook" patterns which are perfectly center on the tooth. What I go by is the pattern being equal in length and somewhat uniform. Attached you will see the Drive & Coast sides of the teeth plus the lapping pattern that is on the gear out of the box- which I call "new pattern". Some gears do not have this but US Gear always does and I like to reference it since it may show how the gear set was lapped. In this case you can see the pattern is center to toe as well only a little high. Setting up this gear set it followed "suit" and the Coast side is center to toe. You will se in my pictures the lengths are equal. Now even though these are final lapped they are never uniform from one tooth to the next. Some may show a full pattern, the next one may be center to toe. I have seen them with one tooth tapering high and the next tapering low. This is where a lot of guys get caught, it is a time consuming process because each pattern change requires break down, cleaning, reshimming, reassembly, then testing. Many cycles to dial them in. Different ratios setup differently but it call comes down to how they were machined and lapped to start. Some new patterns are center on the coast and center to toe on the drive. The rotation is smooth with no binding or noise using a handwheel setup.

Jackfit

Gary's Comments:

" Once I knew where the pattern was I moved on to final install the pinion. The pinion has 2 USA Timken tapered roller bearings with a Crush Sleeve in between them. There are several methods to crush the sleeve used out there, I came up with my own by combining a press and then using a holding bar to dial it in. The object is to set the bearings to a drag of 15-20 in/lb. I set yours to 17.5-18 in/lb. I use CR/SKF pinion seals because I think they are the best. The others are ok I guess but I don't like what I see in a lot of the common kits on the market today. They are sold by places that probably never built a differential.

I check the fit of the yoke being used to make sure there is clearance between the seal and yoke shield. I have found some housings where the seal bore was off and the seal flange hit the shield. That requires either a flangeless seal or reboring the housing. You will see red Dykem on the front of the housing, that is not Loctite as it may look like. I use it to check for contact at that point as I have had to blend in that area on some housings. As you can see these all vary from one to the other, there was never a "perfect" differential built from the factory, at least I haven't seen one yet.

Once the drag is set I stake the new lock nut, this is just something I like to do. There is also #271 Loctite on the nut. "

Jackfit

Almost done, more comments from Gary.

Hi Jack
Here I fit the new ( rebuilt) Lone Star standard axles. With a common built posi with the springs and plates you would just pop these in with the snap ring and that's it. I have seen rebuilt diff's with axle endplay over .100"!
The tuned posi requires the axles to be fit most of the time, the last diff I did they fit perfect but just about all tuned posi's will have -0- endplay or you might not even get the snap ring on. So I set them up in the surface grinder and grind off 005-010" from the hardened face and set the end play to 005-008". This varies because the spiders are not a fine machined gear so they might be a little different through 360*.

Going back to the posi tuning, this is important to get right otherwise you will issue with the axle gap in addition to the posi not working correctly.

So here it is, all I have to do is fit the cover, shoot a touch coat of paint and crate it up for you. Tomorrow I am off so I will be at it on Friday and have it on the dock for pick up on Monday, you will have it on Tuesday.

Any questions?

Thanks
Gary

Jackfit

Hey Jack,
I installed the cover and shot a touch up coat of paint on tonight. Tomorrow I'll come in and crate it up to ship on Monday FedEx.

I will include 2 bottles of posi additive. You will have to pick up 2 bottles of Lucas 85-140 gear oil and you can reuse your old fill plug which you should have there or you can use the new one I installed. Seal the plug with some tape or thread sealant.

You will have to break in the new gears too, I will have paperwork in with the diff to cover the procedure. This is important, you don't want to burn up the new gears.

You should have it on Tuesday.

Thanks Jack, this was an interesting build to say the least.

Gary

Jackfit

The rear end build is over. I just recieved the box and now I have to start thinking about the instalation of the drive train.

But that can wait for another day.

Here it is , and thanks to Gary Ramadie for creating a work of Art.



Just waiting for the rest of the drive train



Here they are , waiting for me to crawl under the car and install

Jackfit

Well I celebrated Memorial Day Weekend with a little car work. I now have all the parts ready for installation .






The first thing I have to ask is , Why did I think I could do this ?



Next I had to get the transmission back in . Replaced the throw-out bearing, rear bearing and seal. Never easy...I finally resorted to the push the tail over the cross member, roll the tranny on to my chest, and do a push up with it . It went up and in. No problems but a lot of back and blue marks on my arms and body.



Drive shaft hooked up with new slip yoke



Using a jack, I lifted up the rear with cross member and bolted it to frame



Next the haft shafts...using jacks to lift the TA up to level to install HS







Next up the strut rods and spring later in the week, waiting for parts

Kerrmudgeon

Well done Jack! The last time I did that on my back was about 35 years ago and I would hate to do it now......oh my aching knees, back, shoulders, etc,etc.....

Jackfit

If I went to a hospital today, and they saw all the black and blue marks on every part of my body, they would think I was being assaulted at home.

The tranny was the tough one, the rear not hard , but , yes on your back is not the way to go ....unless you don't have a lift....

Can't wait to finish up and get the car on the road....

Jack

SubVette599

Jack, you are my inspiration! I can't tell you how much I enjoy following your threads and postings! Stay safe and keep up the great work!!!

Many thanks to your wife for supporting you and allowing you the time to do all that you do!

brit vet

Great read & pics

Jackfit

My rear End is in the seat once again......The first ride of 2015.
After 6 months of restoration , the car held together for a 20 minute ride to start the break in of the newly rebuilt rear end, transmission and suspension..
I did the removal and installation with the car on jack stands.
I do not recommend this method , but like many of us, I had no choice..,,,,,,,.


I have to go now....time for another 20 minute ride....

If you click on the link you will see the video of my first ride, looks better on computer then Iphone , speakers for sound

Mossy66

I had Gary rebuild my diff a few years ago(2008), and I couldn't be happier with the results. In fact, he rebuilt two of them for me! The first one he sent back to me never made it. Stolen or lost! Gary busted his *** to get another one to me in time for a trip I was about to take. The diff still performs perfectly after probably 50-60K miles since then! He does it right. He also does trailing arms (did mine) and, i think steering boxes.


Gerry