Posted by Clint Dixon [172.70.100.187] on Monday, February 16, 2026 at 14:51:54 :
In Reply to: Re: Ring and Pinion Tooth Pattern posted by Clint Dixon [172.69.58.189] on Monday, February 16, 2026 at 14:35:59 :
Another trick I was shown by a prominent Power Wagon mechanic (but I have never had to do it myself) is that there is a cylinder sleeve out there that is the exact diameter to fit under the differential housings bearing caps.
The pinion gets assembled into the housing with the bearings and yoke all properly preloaded and torqued. Then, the sleeve is loaded in place of the differential assembly with the bearing caps torqued down.
A measurement is taken from the end of the pinion gear to the cylinder sleeve. If this dimension is not within a certain tolerance (I do not know the dimension or the tolerance) the pinion and gear will never have correct tooth contact.
The idea here is that this is a shortcut way of determining if it is of any use to proceed further with the gear set at hand, or save a lot of work and try a different set.
Junior
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