www.alloyusa.com
Couple things. If by "zero preload" you mean no bearing preload at all, your gearset will destroy itself when under heavy loading. If you mean "zero" to mean recommended values, great.
Preload is measured usually by prevailing torque to rotate the assembly. Pinion preload most important, 15 inch-lbs minimum for new bearings, 10-15 used, excluding drag of oil seal. .015 on diff carrier seems a bit high, but involves the force applied by the housing itself squeezing the bearings. Likely OK. Not easy to accurately measure.
Are we getting enough young guys adequately interested in the skills to slowly replace us, ya think? Maybe EVs will eliminate ring & pinion gears altogether!
I can tell you the best thing I ever did was to retire. Lots of guys want to wait to get the most benefits. Unless you can tell the future, accurately, you have no idea of what tomorrow may bring. I took S/S at 62, 16 years ago. Last year at Christmastime, I suddenly experienced shortness of breath walking across a parking lot. Two hospitals later, they finally figured out my kidneys had quit working. Reason? THEY DON'T KNOW! Diagnosis? "Undefined Medical Syndrome". So now, I submit to dialysis every 2 days, they pump my blood through a filtering machine for 3 hours, I have to watch what I eat, drink as LITTLE fluid as possible (!), and cannot take a few days trip, tied to returning to a G.D. machine!Not yet on the new technicians. I'm 58 and I'll be the EV guy in the shop, not planning on to many EV's out in western South Dakota. Ford's kind of shoving down our throats including the required the dealership had to buy a $15,000 lift to remove battery packs from the Mach E's. I've always enjoyed learning new tech but at 58 and retiring when I'm 62 I'm kind of over it now
That's my plan you never know and I've lost a few friends/classmates in the past few years taking S/S at 62 been investing for quite a few years also, house and motorhome will be paid off. Take care! a good friend did the daily dialysis for years, he's now on his second transplant first one failed after a few years.
That's my plan you never know and I've lost a few friends/classmates in the past few years taking S/S at 62 been investing for quite a few years also, house and motorhome will be paid off. Take care! a good friend did the daily dialysis for years, he's now on his second transplant first one failed after a few years.
Where are you located?
I’ll keep that in mind and in Orange County Ca
Your patterns look good! Main thing to "feel" is how the mesh turns when you grasp the pinion to cause drag necessary while you turn the assembly by grasping the ring gear. The feel should be smooth with no "grating" or roughness feel as the gears mesh together. To do this, I usually wrap a rag around the u-joint yoke, to create drag.
