Well, here we go. First of all, the pinion bearing preload was < 4.5 in/lbs. Way too low. Second of all, was going to measure around the ring gear and the first measurement I did resulted in a 0.003-0.004 in. backlash. Too tight. Didn't need to measure any more. Seems that maybe I measured the 0.006 backlash before tightening the caps, resulting in too tight of backlash. Guy at dealership was right on. Pinion still turns smooth so I'm not worried about bearings. Since it didn't seem to be tight to begin with, I think I'll aim for torquing it as if they are new bearings (probably have about 40 miles on these bearings which were never tight to begin with). I think 25 in/lbs. is a good round number. I'll keep you posted.

 

Just reading this thread makes me even happier that I had 4 Wheel Parts do my gears. That's the only Mod I didn't feel comfortable tackling at my buddies shop.

 

Got the preload at 29.1 in/lbs. A little above what I wanted but it's there. Not backing off. Backing off would be bad. Like dogs and cats living together .. anyway, the point, dodgenitto, is that you need a TRUSTED shop to do the work. Mine did not, and I will be raising hell with them, as much as I can with the owner being a friend of mine, I hope he understands that a LOT needs to be refunded to me. Tomorrow (it got dark with all of the rain here, just didn't have a lot of time to keep going) I will do the backlash adjustments ... will give me ALL day and hope to get it right this time.

 

So with this being said, yes, it seems I know exactly what needs to be done just not the equipment .. I did make a screw up, pinion threads I jacked up and they fixed. But for everything else ... nada .. ain't gonna happen. Now that I know what they didn't do right ... I just feel bad about getting pissed off at him but dammit, ****'s gotta be right, dammit!

 

Dammit!

 

And there it sits ....

 

Yes, that's a Saturn ... a done dead breed ...

 

but runs GREAT! .. thank, God .... wife would be pissed.

 

Anyway, love talking to myself. I had a couple of beers last night. So here goes. Today, set the backlash to 0.008 to 0.009 (there was a slight variance of 0.0010 ~ 0.0015). Torqued the backlash adjusters to 75 ft/lbs. Checked gear patterns on both 0.009 and 0.008 sides and results look great to me. I'm going to compare with notes because I think that because the coast mesh is more in than the drive, ever so slightly, that the backlash may be a tad off still, but overall, I think either I'm really close or dead on. It just feels right to me this time. If there's noise still, it won't be because of the install, but because I ran the gears for 400 or so miles with it incorrectly installed. I do like the higher backlash to help with cooling so I may just stick with it.

Drive and coast at 0.008 backlash.




Drive and coast at 0.009 backlash.




Good shot of the gear mesh.



After verifying the backlash settings, going to fill 'er up and take it for a spin and see what happens. I feel SO much better about this go around, though. Things just worked out, pinion preload feels great (was almost non existent before), backlash adjusters torqued without issue ... just good all around.

 

Drive and coast at 0.007 backlash. Perfect. That took a bit of adjustment to get it to that. Adjusting backlash on these thing, you just need to tweak it a tad, and a tad I mean like less and 1/10 turn. This was the result of moving it from 12:00 to 12:05.




Pinion/Yoke ... Just to compare from previous picture I had. That's a new Mopar pinion nut, cost me enough.



I still get whine from 44-48 MPH during cruise, 50-45 MPH during decel, nothing on accel, high pitched whine from 20-25 MPH. I will cough these up to "residuals." Noise from a previous bad install (or two, or three). I can't imagine this setup causing whine if it was fresh. We'll see. Hope it goes away. I'll answer the myth that once you have gear whine, and the gears have gone though a heat cycle, that the noise won't go away. I can tell you this. The noise got A LOT quieter and is within a much smaller range. We'll have to see how it all works out.