Curious what some of you professional mechanics think on this gear pattern? I have setup several different 9" rears in the past but never had a pattern quite like this one. FWIW, gears are 4.57 richmonds in a strange case with a 35 spline strange spool. Check out the pics below, i took a pic of the drive and coast side for every setup. The pinion shim thickness is shown in every pic and each setup the had BL set around .008"-.009". In my opinion best pattern was with .024 and .025 pinion shim. I know this question has been posted time and time again but I've come to conclusion that not every pattern is always like the illustration in the richmond book and determining an acceptable pattern can be a bit subjective. Just looking for some opinions. thanx!
Actually using the .023” shim gives me the exact pinion depth (1.027”) which is scribed on the pinion from the factory. But I thought that the pattern looked like it was a little too deep (into the root) @ .023”
.023 for me too but they all look a little "high" on the drive side. Not clear on what could be done to lower it (toe) some. Maybe drop the lash to a "loose" .007 or a "tight" .008? Anything over 4.11 seems to live longest and run most quiet if it slightly favors the toe, or lower on the tooth, with as wide a pattern as you can get. As you lay into it the pattern will actually spread up toward the heel end under heavy load. We'd get more life than most out of pro gears doing that (we ran 4.88s). That's another thing to ask, are you holding the ring gear good and tight as you roll through? The most accurate patterns are when there's a good load on the ring gear as you roll through with the pinion. You're real close. quick edit, you mentioned pinion depth, If that's right on you're really close then definately play with the lash a bit to get you all the way there.
My question is did you "load " the gear to get these patterns ? I prefer .025 , gear oil seems to change "setup patterns" a bit . It will be fine at .023 or .025 , which ever you choose . If you want experience a hair raising event , try setup on a Dana 60 . 9 in Ford is pretty forgiving as far as set up . Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
thanks for the feedback guys.. Yes i held as much resistance against the ring gear as i could by hand as i was running the patterns.. Probably did 3-4 RG revolutions for every setup to get a more defined pattern. Might just go with the .023" to get the exact pinion depth Richmond recommends and then play with the BL to try and get a more "toe" biased pattern. not sure how much movement i can get with a range of .008"-.012". i set everything up on the tight side @ .008"-.009" which should put it more towards the toe i believe
.023 or .025 is too deep, I'd try .026/7, .028 more acceptable than .025; when checking pattern do you 'hammer' the adjusters into place? I take a hammer to the spanner wrench to drive the adjusters into place, they have got to be nailed down. Did you 'surface plate' the back side of the ring gear? I find I get more positive readings, Richmond advises this step as well. In drag racing, depending on the power & severity of launch you'd set your pattern more on the 'toe' side than a street gear. When the car launches defelcting the gear and the pattern moves up the tooth. We have lots of power and set the pattern low on the toe and when you check the gears your see the wear is high on the heel trying to pull metal over the tooth.
Yes the adjusters are locked down with preload on the bearings. I hear you on the sharp line which didn't look right to me but around .025 it seems to be not as sharp. Another thing that happens is thicker the shim the further the pattern moves to the heal. This gear will see nothing but the drag strip so i agree that it should be moved toward the toe but from the results i've gathered so far, i'm sure that will be achievable with this gear set...
You can also email Richmond Gears tech group for their opinion. At least they answered me several years ago.
thanks everyone for your input so far. I went out last night and fooled with two setups. First setup was with .024" shim and .010"BL and still have that line in the root of the tooth. then i tried a .028" with .008 BL and the same line shows up although not nearly as definite. I know ideally the line should not exist and the pattern should be more diffuse but it is present in every setup so far all the way from .020 to .030. Also, every setup no matter the BL favors the heal.. I've had this thing together and apart so much i'm afraid i'm going to strip the threads out
I'm puzzled why the pinion depth didn't work out, that really throws a monkey wrench into the works, all other measurements are screwed, what is the BL written on the gears? The Richmond I've done recently have .006bl, have you tried tighter than .008? You are very close, lots of guys would let them go with what you got in a couple different setups. Its nice to get it better.
BL scribed on ring gear reads: .008"/10 (no inch marks on the 10 but i assume this means BL .008"-.010"). The pinion is scribed 1.027" which can be achieved by using a .023" shim. I've tried tightening up the BL and it doesnt really change much plus i dont want to run the gears too tight.. Not sure what to do at this point other than wing it..
The .020 set up looks best to me. You might never get rid of that sharp line at the tooth root. If anything, I'd try a .017 or .018 shim. Otherwise stick with the .020 shim. If the gears are used, you should be more concerned with the coast side of the teeth
Welp, This is the best pattern I could get and for better or worse it's going in the car! I've tried every combo under the sun so I cant believe it's that far off
Sometimes you just got to stick a fork in it and say 'its done'. The pattern does look decent, if the coast isn't hateful it'll be quiet and reliable. I've never seen a range on the backlash, very odd that. You know Richmond gear was sold to Motive (Italian) and I did a set of Richmond gears last month that didn't have the right shims, the BL was .007 and all the shims went by .005 multiples (it was a 10bolt GM), I had to buy additional shims.
yeah i fought with this thing for a week and determined enuff is enuff.. The coast side is actully a really nice pattern top to bottom but favors the toe a little bit and still has a line towards the root but the line was there for every setup whether it was shallow or deep. I was told that maybe the line was from using too much marking compound and it was getting wiped to the edge of the tooth making that line. idk.... Yeah I can imagine a 10 bolt being a pita without the right shims in the kit. Anyways I got my fingers crossed!
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