1madss

iTrader: (10)

I'm almost ready to re-assemble the rear but I'm not 100% clear on a couple of things on the pinion assembly.

I found 1 shim that was between the small (front) bearing and the crush sleeve. I'm pretty sure this is the one that was moved from between the yoke and the front bearing. I'm going to place this back between the yoke and bearing.

The pinion shims that came with the Ratech basic kit are much larger than the one that I found in the rear.

Do the pinion shims go between the back face of the pinion gear and the large bearing or in between the large bearing and the cruch sleeve? It looks like there is a shim now between the gear and bearing.

If the bearings go between the gear and the bearing, how do I adjust these if the bearing is pressed onto the gear shaft?

I assume that I need to set the pre-load on the pinion prior to checking the gear pattern. But if I crush the sleeve to acheive proper pre-load, how can I dissamble the pinion to change the shims without needing another crush sleeve.

I'm sure that I'm missing something or misunderstand the assembly process that is cauing my confusion.

Also, what should I look for to tell if the bearings are shot? Both the front and back bearing look fine, but I'm not 100% sure what I'm looking for.

Last question. Do I need to get a new pinion nut? I thought the kit came with one, but I was wrong and I've had a hard time finding one over the weekend here in Hattiesburg.

kp

iTrader: (34)

The shims go between the big bearing and the pinion. Preloading the bearings wont change the pinion depth and significant amount, its kind of hard to squash hardened rollers and bearing races.

I had a new bearing that the ID was honed to slide over the pinion, after I got the proper depth I would put the new bearing and the honed bearing in the same race and see if there was any diffirence. If not I just pressed it on and 90% of the time the depth was right on (or darn close). its a little more of a pain when you are doing it without a pinion depth measuring tool but just leave the crush sleeve off and very carefully tighten the pinion until you get a little preload to check it - save the crush sleeve for last.

just put some locktite on the pinion nut if you cant find a new one, when you start to crush the new sleeve you will see it will be pretty tight..

1madss

iTrader: (10)

Ahhh I see now. The crush sleeve sets how deeply into the races that the bearings sit. The deeper they are pulled into the race, the more "preload".

I'm pretty sure that after moving the shim that the shop had moved from behind the yoke back to where it was that the pinion depth should be good.

I owe you a cold one for all the help kp

kp

iTrader: (34)

Havent been to Hattiesburg in a few years, used to go there quite a bit when I was racing a lot though. Ricky Klarr used to do a lot of machine work for me, except for his shop and the waffle house I dont remember much about Hattiesburg

If the rear was set up right and you didnt change the big pinion bearing nothing will change, the crush sleeve goes between the two bearing's inner races. If it wasnt there and you tightened the pinion nut it would destroy the bearings, they also make solid crush sleeves that you just use shims to set the preload. When you go to tighten that crush sleeve down you will see it doesnt crush all that easy

Jason99T/A

iTrader: (21)

Mark, kp pretty much summed it up nicely.

You can always just use the old crush collar when getting the pattern/contact pattern correct, and then install the new crush collar when setting the preload on the pinion bearing during final assembly.

Jason