Hi everyone, Well, my ring and pinion, install kit, and all that stuff came in.....just in time for it to rain like hell and flood my garage. I did get a bit of a start on it though, and have a question. Oh, by the way, 2001 Durango, 4.7, 9.25 rear axle. I'm getting conflicting reports on where to place the pinion shims. Chrysler says between pinion and inner bearing. But some people have told me it's better to shim the inner bearing race, as long as it's not more than about a hundred thousandths. Reason for that is, the race never spins or moves. Shims on the pinion shaft next to the bearing, could potentially wear out over time from the constant spinning and movement, thus slowly changing your set up.

It makes sense to me, just trying to find reasons why I shouldn't shim the race. Just in case I'm missing something, or it's a huge NO NO or something. I'm looking at probably a couple days before my garage dries out (damn it), so chime in with your thoughts and experience. Got plenty of time to get it figured out now....

 

I examined the shim that came out when I took off the bearing, and sure enough....I could see exactly how it wore. Don't have my notes in here, but if I remember right, it was supposed to be .022 or something like that, and was partially worn down to about .012. I put the shims behind the inner bearing race, which made it easier to set pinion as well....instead of pressing bearing on and off, all I had to do was pop the race in and out. I got this thing almost all back togeather, and almost all the way bolted back up under the truck. Hoping to test drive this afternoon.

 

you DO how to set the back lash, dont you? if not i recomend you get help. i have done these installs. but was many years ago. it is NOT easy. i do have a trick to test the back lash with out an indicator. good luck.

 

I got a set of Motive gears, which call for .008 - .012 backlash, so I set it to .010, and verified that reading in four places around the ring gear. Backlash was easy, since I have about 6 dial indicators, and a bit of understanding of some of this stuff from being a machinist. Just out of curiosity though, What is your little trick if you don't mind me asking? It was a little tricky getting the pinion depth right...I pulled it apart about 7 times trying different shims before I got it right. Gear pattern check was shockingly almost dead on....marks were nicely centered on the teeth, both drive and coast. Don't have a pinion depth tool, so just kinda winged it on that, but pattern and backlash looked real good. Took it for a short drive yesterday, and it drove good. Can't go too far with it yet, as I need to go get an emissions test to re-register it.