OPINION ON DANA 60 GEAR PATTERN

[65Fury440]

Right now by backlash is on the tight side at .005
The smallest carrier shim I have will bring it out to .010
At the wider setting, I had a lot of noise on deaccel. The marks sitting in the ring gear look like the backlash is too tight. The gear set has 3 quarter mile passes on them.

 

[5.7 hemi]

Put your hand on the ring gear as you turn it. This places a load on the gears and shows a better pattern. Then I can give ya some direction to go in.

 

[66Satellite47]

That looks pretty good to me.

 

[fbs63]

It's very hard to get a good pattern on a used gear, especially if it was set up incorrectly in the first place. If you have the tools set the pinion depth correctly first. Then pinion bearing preload. Then backlash. I think (just my opinion through experience) that people worry too much about the pattern. Now if you don't have the tools to accurately check the specs, then all you have to go on is the pattern.

 

[493 Mike]

It looks to me like the pinion depth is too deep. A little tight on backlash is OK for drag racing-especially with a stick/transbrake.
Mike

 

[66Satellite47]

Gee, if the drive side is just close in the middle & the coast side is close, you have it nailed.

 

[dvw]

Less pinion shim. Pattern is too deep into the root of the tooth.
Doug

 

[65Fury440]

Hey guys thanks for the comments.
I put these 4.10 gears (new in box from Dr Diff) in just before my last drag day.
I had what I thought was a good pattern. Ran 3 quarter mile runs with open headers, no problems.
Took the car back home, put the exhaust on, went for a ride, as mentioned earlier, no noise till letting off the gas.
I took about .007 of pinion shim out, got the pattern I posted.
Tonight, as suggested, I was going to pull another .010 out of the pinion shims.
For shits and giggles, I grabbed the carrier, and can hear a click pulling back and forth sideways, There is no visible movement, but, that has to count for some side play.
@dvw how much pinion shim would you guess I need to pull out?
I think I am going to shove another shim into the carrier side bearing.
Thanks everyone for the input, this is my first time.

 

[65Fury440]

Put your hand on the ring gear as you turn it. This places a load on the gears and shows a better pattern. Then I can give ya some direction to go in.

I am using my hand to put drag on the ring gear while my helper (wife) turns the pinion with a socket.

 

[5.7 hemi]

I’d add .010 to the drivers side carrier bearing and take .005 from the pinion. After you take .005 from the pinion, torque the nut to spec and check rotational torque with an inch pound torque wrench, shoot for 22-25 inch pounds.

 

[493 Mike]

I am using my hand to put drag on the ring gear while my helper (wife) turns the pinion with a socket.

I jamb a screwdriver in so it drags on the carrier.
Mike

 

[dvw]

I'd guess.005" to start as well. Test pinion preload and correct as necessary. After moving the pinion reset the backlash to .007"-.008" and test the pattern. Once the pattern is good I add .005" on each side of the carrier for carrier preload.
Doug

 

[66Satellite47]

A little deep is good if you have a lot of power IMHO.

 

[65Fury440]

A little deep is good if you have a lot of power IMHO.

It's a stick shift car and pulls both front tires, but I don't want it noisy on the street.
Is there a down side to running them deep as is?
Will they be stronger that deep?
I've had this thing in and out a dozen times, so another couple won't matter, just want to do a good job.

 

[Fran Blacker]

You mentioned side play, did you mean backlash? When pulling my Dana suregrip needed two small crowbars placed carefully in suregrip to pop it out. Then grab ring gear to lift it out.

 

[dvw]

I run mine centered. Here's pics of 2 different sets. The first set of gears went 425 passes before it bent the teeth and closed up the backlash. Car runs 1.2x 60ft @ 3345lbs. If anything I'd run the backlash on the high side.
Doug

 

[65Fury440]

You mentioned side play, did you mean backlash? When pulling my Dana suregrip needed two small crowbars placed carefully in suregrip to pop it out. Then grab ring gear to lift it out.

When I started there was .060 on the pinion side of the case and .030 on the right side for a total of .090.
I now have .070 on the pinion side and .020 on the right side.
My old gears made no noise at all, but maybe someone was in there before me?
The carrier took a bunch of blows from a big deadblow hammer to seat, but I can grab the ring gear and make it click side to side. I would imagine if it moves a little by hand, it would move a lot under power. I probably need to mic the shims again, wouldn't like to think one got missed but some days the CRS is worse than others.

 

[65Fury440]

So after reducing the pinion shims first .007, then .012 this is where it ended up.
My backlash is at .005, think this is good enough to run, pattern opened up quite a bit.Test drive tomorrow.
Thank you everyone who helped, I understand what's going on now a lot more.

 

[dvw]

That looks good to me.
Doug

 

[66Satellite47]

Does look good. I had a hard time getting the back side looking good when the drive side looked perfect. Just me. Dana's are darn forgiving.