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I'm putting together a 3.73 limited slip for my F150.
I've heard two things, first, put everything back in the way you took it off. There were NO shims.
But, most people say use .028 to start for the pinoin.
You need the dial indicator, torque wrenches etc to measure backlash, drag etc.
Yea, I seen that video... I've seen others too. Honestly, I need to pick a place to start. .028 shim or NO shim. The guy in the vid you posted had to back off to .015.
The housing I'm rebuilding was catastrophic, carrier was straight broken in half. The pinion I pulled has several shims. Too many probably.
I pulled the new 3.73 carrier, ring & pinion from an Exploder. Zero(0) shims on the pinion and no slim shims on the sides, just the two thick factory ones.
Me and my machinist friend are betting NO SHIM on the pinion. If it came out that way, It goes in that way is a good rule of thumb. Another mechanic I know pretty well, told me to start with the .028 shim. Because, the housing it came from, is not, the housing its going into.
I'm going NO shim on the pinion. I'm going to use the left and right factory spacers from the explorer(I have them marked L/R). I'm going to use the original caps from the housing.
Hopefully I'm within 8 - 10 and the pattern looks good.... If not, I can try some slight adjustment from there.
It's not uncommon for one to not have any pinion shimms from the factory but it is uncommon for a new pinion not to have any. I would start with .020 and go from there.
It's not uncommon for one to not have any pinion shimms from the factory but it is uncommon for a new pinion not to have any. I would start with .020 and go from there.
I'm hearing you. This is what most people have told me. A drive line guy told me he always starts @ .028. A machinist friend of mine said he always puts it back the way it came(w/o shim in this case) regardless of the housing being original or a core rebuild. Also, for clarification, this isn't a new pinion. It's a used factory pinion from an explorer 8.8 that I pulled from the junk yard. I pulled the pinion and the carrier with the ring gear. The whole set.
That being said, I did put a .027 shim... I wish I had read this earlier. .019 shim was in my kit and makes a nice compromise between .028 and nothing.
Look, a new Koyo bearing is 15$ if I need too, I'll adjust the shim and press a new bearing if the heal, toe pattern is garbage.
I worked on it today after work. The axle fell off the stand and smashed my hand so I called it for the day. I'll finish tomorrow.
I did a mock-up. Here is the paint pattern w/ .028 shim behind the pinion. It looks to be a bit on the toe of the ring. However its within tolerance. the coast side looks good, It's not all pushed out at the heal. It has .011 play, that's within spec.
I could have done NO shim, I would have been closer to the outside of the ring. I could back off to .019 or .012 to try and dial it in. But this will run.
I would take some shim out of that, it's not done yet.
I woke up thinking the same thing. I'm going to pull the .027 shim and go NO shim. Like I should have done in the first place. I'm not sure why I put that shim, I just over thought it.
More pics to come dudes. I need to grab a new bearing, race and do another mock-up.
I took it down to .010 shim on the pinion. I didn't go all the way, because I wanted to see what the pattern looked. Curiosity.
Here is .010 shim on the pinion and the custom carrier shim pack from the previous photos.
As you can see, This is a marked improvement. As you can see, the coast side no longer has too much toe. The coast side is now almost perfect.
However, the drive side, is still a bit on the heal, the drive side did move some, but not as much.
I took a look at the ford .pdf( https://performanceparts.ford.com/do...htM-4209-8.pdf ) and saw this illistration.
I felt this was the most accurate pattern & my run-out was .012'ish, the top side of the tolerance.
I then pulled the custom shim setup out and dropped in the factory spacers. here is the new pattern.
As you can see from the photos above, this brought the drive side pattern dead nuts on center while only shifting the coast side slightly in off the toe a little more.
I'm happy with it now. The run out is on the low side, .08 its on the tight side, but these are worn in, used gears.
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