This is my first time setting up gears. For those of you who have some experience, what do you think of this pattern? everything is in spec and backlash is at .007.

Dana 44 rear, non-rubicon, Yukon 5.13 gears, Detroit Turetrac.

 

I'm also doing gears just up the road from you. I'm no expert, but I'd say you've got it good. It's centered up, it's not coming over the top of the gear. Hopefully I'll be able to get mine finished tomorrow.

 

Thanks Karl! What ratio are you re-gearing to?

 

I'm going 4.56 from 3.73 but I'm in a 6 speed with 35's and that same 3.8l. I've been on 3.73 for so long that jumping two sets should put me back to 'factory' plus a pinch.

Your pattern is making me want to go back and shim mine just a pinch more.

 

I'm no pro and have only done this on my own jeep a couple times, the first time with help. I think the pattern looks good and I'd be fine running it.

Karl, just keep in mind there's a decent spectrum of acceptable. Sometimes you can't get dead nuts perfect. I think regearing really gets in all our heads in thinking that experts in the shops are 100% perfect all the time. I think it takes a few more attempts at home playing the shim hokie pokie, but with some patience, you arrive at an acceptable destination just the same. The difference at a shop is they do it more often and can typically get really really close on their first attempt.

 

I probably took everything apart and put it back together 8 or 9 times to get to this point. I pulled both axles out of the jeep and have them on a work bench in front of me so it's much easier to work on compared to laying on the ground under the Jeep. Also this jeep is not my daily driver so I don't have to get it back on the road right away.

From the research I've done, you should be most concerned about the pattern being centered between the root and the crown (up and down) of the ring gear. Being off center a little between the heel and toe (side to side) is not a big deal as long as the pinion does not run off of either side of the ring gear. Of course you want backlash and pinion being pre-load in spec also.

I mainly concentrated on pinon depth at first and when I got it pretty close I worked on tightening up the backlash into spec.

 

Did my final setup but backlash and gear pattern changed a little bit. Must have been a little bit of difference between the setup bearings and the new bearings. I adjusted the backlash back in spec to .008. The pattern changed some but still looks centered just not as rounded of a pattern. What do you guys think of the new pattern?

 

My unprofessional opinion is that looks perfectly fine to run.

If you didn't coat the pinion bearings with little oil when popping that pinion gear back up in place, you might try to get a little oil to em before buttoning it all up so they don't start out dry before the oil gets slung up there. Didn't think of suggesting that before you did final assembly. Hopefully you did it anyhow.

 

Yes sir, I put plenty of gear oil in all the bearings. Time to start on the front axle tomorrow.