It looks okay to me but I dont mess with these everyday. what do you guys think ? this is for a 94 T/A 2 series with now 3.73 gears (richmond)
DRIVE


COAST

 

Top pic looks a little low to me. I believe the pattern is supposed to be as centered as possible.

 

The drive side looks pretty close. The coast side pattern is varied too much to get a good read. Try wrapping a rag around the pinion yoke(close to the seal area) to increase tension if needed and roll the ring gear back and forth through the pinion. It should help get a better read on the coast side. According th Randy's R&P its not where the pattern ends up on the tooth from heel to toe but where it ends up root to face. Notice how there is a parallelagram shape to the pattern and its longer in the root?

 

The dr pattern should look like the coast one.

 

ok, i guess i'll try playing with some shims then. Think I should increase backlash first ?

 

http://www.differentials.com/install.html

Near the bottom of this ^ page there are three groups of expandable photos(just click) As you will see its all about the patterns shape and how "square" it is in the root/face dimention. Where it ends up heel to toe is a matter of backlash and the machine tolerance of the housing and should not try to be corrected for as long as the back lash is in spec.(you can move the pattern for/aft from heel to toe with backlash but only with in the BL spec) Remember, every time you change pinion depth you need to re-check/adjust backlash.

Judging by your photos I would say you need less pinion shim and more backlash....though back lash may open up enough when you pull out pinion shim.

http://www.precisiongear.com/pgtechpatterns.htm
In this pic, the one called "low contact" and "toe contact"......look familiar

 

Too tight to the center, decrease the pinion shim size. The pattern should not look sharp and clean cut like that, it should look like a cloud. Cleaner towards the center with the edges getting progressivly darker.



bad pic from the internet

 

LOL, what did I get myself into ? . oh well, thanks everyone. Ill take stab at it again this weekend.

 

Ever get it sorted out?

 

Yeah I'm working on it. That first try was with the stock pinion shim, so I went back and recalculated that my pinion depth is at 2.284. So to get it where Richmond wants it I have to take .033 off the shim. so I'll give that a try and repost soon !

thanks everyone for your help. YOU SAVED MY REAR

 

.033" pinion shim change is huge!!,, never change that much at 1 time. I have done hundreds of rear ends and never had to change the pinion shim that much

what do you have for a shim now,, probly .034-.039" and you want to take away .033" ?

 

oh, wow...now i'm lost at a loss. Ok to get these measurements im using a ratech pinion depth setting tool. Using it I got a number 2.284, Multiple times I've checked it and arrived to that number. The number that Richmond put on the pinion head is 2.317. Where do I go from here?

 

what is your pinion bearing pre-load set at?

did you install new bearings and race?, if so are they pressed on the pinion all the way, and the race driven all the way into the case, any burrs from knocking out the old race that you didnt clean up before driving in the new race

 

I agree with jay, that is a HUGE change. I would start with removing .003in and recheck the pattern. A large change would be .008-.010. I would also re-read the instructions for that tool, you may need to include the tool thickness into the math.

 

Good luck but they are going to be noisy no matter how good you get it. I have Richmonds in my car and they are very loud on deceleration as well as 40-55 mph, which is all the time. Every car I have ever been in with Richmonds is noisy as hell. Not to discourage you or anything, maybe you can get it right, but don't think you screwed up just because it whines.