hey guys, i've installed richmond 3.73 gears and i'm using a .035" shim for the pinion and i have a backlash of .009 and i come up with this pattern. is this acceptable?

 

i would think the pinion needs to be shimmed out more. the pattern should be in the middle of the ring gear. the gears should me engraved with the backlash and the pinion depth. they need to be set up to those specification of they will whine

 

i'd worry more about setting the pinion to the correct depth and not so much the contact pattern since that's pretty subjective. however it looks like your pattern is off it also sounds like you randomly installed a .035 shim on the pinion.do you have the preload set on the pinion?

 

yes i have the preload set, i'm using a solid spacer, i used the old pinion shim.

 

i checked the pinion depth and it matches whats etched on the pinion and that is still the pattern i come up with

 

i've never used a solid spacer so i don't know about it or what to say to look at. my only other thought is maybe a race isn't seated, if you changed races, but if that were the case your pinion depth would be off.

 

no i'm using all the original bearings and races, i broke a couple teeth of the ring gear, so i'm just trying to get a new set in until i get a 12 bolt

 

according to randys ring and pinion pattern images, mine falls under one of the acceptable ones ? the pattern is centered face to flank, just not heel to toe

 

From what I've read, the heel and toe pattern can be off quite a bit without affecting anything too bad. The most important thing is the tooth depth, which looks acceptable on your pattern. It looks like your pattern is closer to the toe on the drive side of the gear, which is a lot better than it being closer to the heel. A lot of drag racers intentionally position the drive side closer to the toe as it's supposed to be stronger that way. Since your pinion depth checks out okay and your backlash is within specs, I'd say to go ahead and run it. If you really wanted to be picky, you could re-shim the carrier to achieve a more ideal .006-.008 backlash, but it's not totally necessary. .009 is acceptable.

 

actually the drive side is more towards the heel, the coast side is towards the toe, everyone i talked to said even if you go by the specs that the pattern is all that matters, i changed the pinion depth and got the drive centered on the tooth, i put it together and i took it for a drive, it seems quiet until i let off the gas as i go to stop there is a whirring noise as speed decreases, could this just be gear noise ?