I'm building my 8.2 for my 65 Skylark. New gears and posi carrier. Got everything from Monzaz (jdrace). Following instructions and have help from a few people at work who do this day to day. I've have this apart about three times now to mess with shims and to me the pattern isn't doing anything. What needs to happen next here.
I was just saving the people the extra click. :beer: I finally got it though. My "teachers" had me moving the pinion closer and closer instead of farther. So I dropped the shim down and adjusted the backlash and bam good to go. I will post new pics in the morning.
Well that was a fail. After having it set up correctly. I go to do the final assembly, and the gears don't even move. I can't turn the pinion at all. So back to square one I guess.
press on, friend...you will get it. persevere are you using a depth tool to set preliminary depth on the pinion or are you going just on pattern?
I'm just going by the gear pattern. Its my first time doing a differential so I figured there would be problems. It also doesn't help when the people telling me how to do it just have "feel" for it. Makes me want to bring it home and buy all the tools and just go at it solo.
kudos for just getting into it and doing it. Youll learn a lot. FYI Summit sells a reasonably priced, reasonably accurate pinion depth measuring tool. http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-900021/ It might be a "economical" way to get the pinion close, then fine adjust by the pattern
Thanks for that. I'm going to get back into it and start over from scratch this week. See if I can come out better this time around. I keep bending those stupid shims.
Ok- Jim Here from J D Race- How come you have not called me. www.jdrace.com also. First thing when you need help we all need the info. We need to know EVERY TIME you do a change the CHANGES YOU MAKE. IE - Shim thickness (.035) pinion shim and Backlash reading (.005 -.010 etc.) Carrier shims should not be bending if you bought our rebuild kit they are SUPER SHIMS and sandwich ... You will always use the 2 thick shims one with the 90 degree ledge and then some thin shims sandwiched between the other non 90 degree .100 flat shim to create a .220-.250 shim pack as needed. The pattern you gave in the picture shows too deep and probably too much or too little backlash. EVERY TIME you do a depth pinion shim change you should always double check your backlash. IF you make a small move like .005 or less on the pinion you will probably not need to check the backlash unless you do another pinion shim change in the same direction. Please do not give up and you must have patients with the set-up and diligence in cleanliness and repetition. IT WILL come together... TRUST me. Best to always start with the original pinion shim from the old gear set. IF you do not have one then start with .035 for the 8.2 Buick Olds Pontiac rear from 1964-1967 1968-1970 BUICK 8.2 use the .028 for a starting pinion shim. Hope to hear from you again here or at jdrace. Jim Example pictures of the pattern were trying to get. or close.
I don't have a lot of time to contact by phone while I'm at work. I figured you'd see it when I posted here. Thanks for the reply. I did at first use the old pinion shim then made movements up. After figuring out that I was moving the pinion the wrong way I went on a long shot and put in a .010 shim. My side shims were at L .078" and R .076". Backlash was at 7 and the pattern looked great. I took apart, keeping everything in order and did a final assembly with the crush sleeve and pinion seal in place and when I went to put the carrier back in, it was really tight. When the caps were torqued down, it won't move at all. I am using your rebuild kit aswell and the shims that come in that kit I cannot use. The ones you speak of that sandwich together are far too large to allow me to put the carrier in the housing. There is no way they will work. Then shims I took off the old carrier measured at L .082" and R .072". I have been stuck using another techs shims that I have to grind down the circumference so they will fit in the housing. Edit: Well I found the issue and hopefully it will go together fine now. When I pulled the pinion back off to start over, I saw that somehow the big pinion bearing had backed off some which was causing to sit too far in the housing. That explains why it was so tight it wouldn't move. So I'm going to press that back on and put it together and see where I'm at. I'll take new pics and post them.
