He couldn't remember but thinks it was a .036, which happens to be what I started with on the Motive gear.
My first thought looking at the pictures is the pinion needs to go another .004" in ( more shim), and the backlash needs increased as it will decrease even more when you move the pinion in. As you move the pinion in the pattern moves from the heal to the toe and down on the drive side, and from the toe to the heal and down on the coast side (opposite for moving out). I have seen lots of the yukon gears, and "quality (OEM)" gears that end up with a pattern like that and are still quiet. You shouldn't leave less than .008" backlash, the tighter the backlash the more chance of noisy gears too. The pattern was a little deep when you tightened it up, but you can go a little more back lash, say .012-.013 max! I have run hundreds of gears with that pattern because they COULD NOT BE SETUP ANT OTHER WAY. I have found Richmond to be noisy quite often in the last few years. We even had new GM gears that could not be setup, the factory sent a rep to see and we showed them 3 sets that were exactly the same. Anyone can have a bad batch of gears. But the pattern you showed wasn't that bad especially if it was quiet. Peolple say use a "___" shim, but usually you end up using the shim that the Housing comes with, as the gears are usually very accurate, it's the housings that vary so much. When you perform a pinion depth check like you did, it usually doesn't need more than about .004" pinion adjustment eather way. Never move the pinion more than .004" at a time, unless your experienced and know less won't be better. It's a good idea to leave the seal out until you have the adjustment finalized. Do try some more backlash though, most differentials that have lots of miles and make no noise have .013" or more backlash, the backlash has to be very loose to cause a clunk (Contrary to most diagnosis).
Hey Tim, I am sorry but I just looked at the .038" setup you tried, the pattern cannot go deeper than that. I wish I could tell you something would work. Probably best to take it to Jim.
