My D30 had no pinon depth shims...?

Hi Folks,

I'm regearing my D30 and see that I had no pinion depth shims originally. From the pinion, it was slinger, inner bearing, inner race, baffle, diff case. No shimming at all inside the case. I did have preload shims on the outside part of the pinion. Is this odd?

Thanks,
Ben

fizassist said:

Hi Folks,

I'm regearing my D30 and see that I had no pinion depth shims originally. From the pinion, it was slinger, inner bearing, inner race, baffle, diff case. No shimming at all inside the case. I did have preload shims on the outside part of the pinion. Is this odd?

Thanks,
Ben

Click to expand...

Has anybody messed with it in the past? Some people put the shims under the cone of the inner bearing. Take a look there.

Ive found them both ways, this is when a pinion depth guage comes in handy on the install!

If you do not have a pinion depth guage,(most people don't, they are expensive) it will be trial and error, but start out with the same set up that came out.

Mic all of your shims and the slinger to make sure you start where it was.

xjtrailrider said:

Ive found them both ways, this is when a pinion depth guage comes in handy on the install!

If you do not have a pinion depth guage,(most people don't, they are expensive) it will be trial and error, but start out with the same set up that came out.

Mic all of your shims and the slinger to make sure you start where it was.

Click to expand...

No depth gauge, so it's trial & error. The new (4.10) pinion needs to be spaced out a lot. I got sick of it and will finish up tomorrow. I'd really be annoyed if I hadn't made setup bearings.

Thanks for the replies; I should have checked the pattern of the old 3.55 gears just for kicks.

fizassist said:

No depth gauge, so it's trial & error. The new (4.10) pinion needs to be spaced out a lot. I got sick of it and will finish up tomorrow. I'd really be annoyed if I hadn't made setup bearings.

Thanks for the replies; I should have checked the pattern of the old 3.55 gears just for kicks.

Click to expand...

Did you ever find any shims at all?
Anywhere?

The number on the end of the old pinion will show a number. If it's 0 then no shims where required.

langer1 said:

The number on the end of the old pinion will show a number. If it's 0 then no shims where required.

Click to expand...

That's a good theory but I don't buy it.
I never had to replace those shims and I don't know from personal experience.
Consider this.
You have an axle with a pinion marked 0. You replace the pinion with a new one marked -4. What do you do now? Mill 0.004" off the housing?
I believe that every axle pinion comes shimmed to cover all posiblities.
I think that shims are always required. I think that the etched number shows how many thousands off the standard that particular pinion is, making it easy to add or remove shims to be at the stadard. I did some checking in the FSM.
My 96 FSM says that the shims come from the factory between the bearing and slinger. After that, for service purposes, they go behind the cup.
My 99 FSM says this:
NOTE: Pinion depth shims are placed between the
rear pinion bearing cup and axle housing to achieve
proper ring and pinion gear mesh. If the factory
installed ring and pinion gears are reused, the pinion
depth shim should not require replacement.
Refer to Pinion Gear Depth to select the proper
thickness shim before installing pinion gear.

perhaps the pinion was marked after the install, so if it was installed and happened to be right on then they marked it 0. Of course that number would only be good with that houseing and pinion. A new pinion would have the be setup and it could be marked with it's shim requirements.

87manche said:

perhaps the pinion was marked after the install, so if it was installed and happened to be right on then they marked it 0. Of course that number would only be good with that houseing and pinion. A new pinion would have the be setup and it could be marked with it's shim requirements.

Click to expand...

My understanding is that they make the pinions as close to the standard as possible. If they are off by a little they are marked so at the factory.
Then the axle has to conform to a standard if it is off, it is corrected by the same shims.
Here is how I think it is done.
When the axle goes to Chrysler, they put a gage on that tells what shims are needed to have the axle were it should be, next they grab the pinion and look at the face, if 0 no more shims, if other than 0 they have to add or subtract from the original.
When you replace the pinion, you are supposedly on the proper dimention. If the number on the pinion is the same, no further shim adjustment, if not, you go by the Chrysler chart to add or remove.
All this comes from reading and listening, if I'm wrong feel free to correct me.

falcon556 said:

Did you ever find any shims at all?
Anywhere?

Click to expand...

Nope, there were no shims behind the inner bearing or race or slinger.

fizassist said:

Nope, there were no shims behind the inner bearing or race or slinger.

Click to expand...

My 96 FSM says that pinion depth measurements are necessary when replacing axle housing etc. To me that means the axle housings are not perfect.
You may have the perfect axle along with the perfect pinion.
I don't know what to say. Either somebody did some creative work on the axle,
or I need to open the manual and study some more.
Thanks for the info.

falcon556 said:

My 96 FSM says that pinion depth measurements are necessary when replacing axle housing etc. To me that means the axle housings are not perfect.
You may have the perfect axle along with the perfect pinion.
I don't know what to say. Either somebody did some creative work on the axle,
or I need to open the manual and study some more.
Thanks for the info.

Click to expand...

I'll check the slinger thickness; maybe it's thick...

fizassist said:

No depth gauge, so it's trial & error. The new (4.10) pinion needs to be spaced out a lot. I got sick of it and will finish up tomorrow. I'd really be annoyed if I hadn't made setup bearings.

Thanks for the replies; I should have checked the pattern of the old 3.55 gears just for kicks.

Click to expand...

Did you finish the job? How did it work out.
What kind of shims did you use if any, behind the cone or behind the cup?

falcon556 said:

Did you finish the job? How did it work out.
What kind of shims did you use if any, behind the cone or behind the cup?

Click to expand...

Yep, I finished buttoning it up today. This was my first set-up, and it took a while... I finally got a great pattern on both sides. No whine, even up to highway speed.

I used .046" behind the inner pinion race. I forgot to mic the new slinger, but it didn't seem noticably different from the old one.

Now I have to re-gear the D35 and I can actually use 4wd again.

fizassist said:

Yep, I finished buttoning it up today. This was my first set-up, and it took a while... I finally got a great pattern on both sides. No whine, even up to highway speed.

I used .046" behind the inner pinion race. I forgot to mic the new slinger, but it didn't seem noticably different from the old one.

Now I have to re-gear the D35 and I can actually use 4wd again.

Click to expand...

Glad you like it. I think the person that messed with it previously messed up big time not installing any shims. .046" +- is in line with what I would expect to find
on a pinion.