Gear swap by a friend

jimberg · 04-30-2001, 04:08 AM

I just got finished swapping in gears and rebuilding the traction-lok by myself. A friend loaned me a tool for measuring pinion depth. What I found was that if you use Ford gears you can pretty much reuse the old shims and every thing will fall into place. A mechanic about to open his own shop should have no problem installing them. If he doesn't try to tweak the gears to be more for competition or something, you shouldn't have a problem. My new gears are as quiet as the old ones.

You should, of course, verify all of the measurements and use marking compound to verify the gear contact pattern. Mine were all perfect with the old shims, but results may vary.

As an aside, you should not tighten the pinion nut with an impact wrench. If you tighten too far, you're screwed and have to start over with another crush sleeve. It's better to just use a breaker bar with a cheater pipe and something to hold the pinion flange while you tighten. I just took a 3' length of steel with two holes drilled in it. One hole has bolt with the head cut off that I used to stick through one of the holes on the pinion flange, and the other one I just put one of the drive shaft bolts through and screwed into the flange. It held great for removing and tightening the pinion nut. You can use an impact wrench for removing the nut, of course.

------------------
351W 89 Mustang GT Convertible

[This message has been edited by jimberg (edited 04-30-2001).]

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04-30-2001, 04:08 AM	#3
jimberg Registered Member Join Date: Oct 1998 Location: Rogers, MN Posts: 2,089	I just got finished swapping in gears and rebuilding the traction-lok by myself. A friend loaned me a tool for measuring pinion depth. What I found was that if you use Ford gears you can pretty much reuse the old shims and every thing will fall into place. A mechanic about to open his own shop should have no problem installing them. If he doesn't try to tweak the gears to be more for competition or something, you shouldn't have a problem. My new gears are as quiet as the old ones. You should, of course, verify all of the measurements and use marking compound to verify the gear contact pattern. Mine were all perfect with the old shims, but results may vary. As an aside, you should not tighten the pinion nut with an impact wrench. If you tighten too far, you're screwed and have to start over with another crush sleeve. It's better to just use a breaker bar with a cheater pipe and something to hold the pinion flange while you tighten. I just took a 3' length of steel with two holes drilled in it. One hole has bolt with the head cut off that I used to stick through one of the holes on the pinion flange, and the other one I just put one of the drive shaft bolts through and screwed into the flange. It held great for removing and tightening the pinion nut. You can use an impact wrench for removing the nut, of course. ------------------ 351W 89 Mustang GT Convertible [This message has been edited by jimberg (edited 04-30-2001).]