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Ok, spent six hours yesterday installing new R&P and a new style Detroit. I'm offering some suggestions and observation you may find helpful.
First, you will need a hydraulic press or access to a shop that has one. Do order a master install kit with the R&P's. I got Randy's, it had everything I needed. I advise you to pull the axle, makes the job one heck of a lot easier if this is your first time, and a couple of other reasons, primarily when trying to set pinion depth.
Regarding the detroit, the throw the detroit into the freezer, and the ring gear in the oven works sweet...i heated the ring to 200 degrees, the bolts drew it down onto the detroit VERY easily, no stress on the ring gear bolts or threads in the process. A case spreader was not necessary, the existing carrier and ring gear was easily leveraged out, the trick is to get it to move then get a grip on the carrier shims and pull one of em, then the whole thing just comes right out.
For setting pinion depth in the 20, the VERY experienced mechaninc showing me how to do all this rotated the diff on a set of tires so that the yoke end was pointing to the ground. He then installed the interior bearing race, bearing, shims etc. and set the pinion gear in-pushing them down to seat. He had a small metal plate for the other end (yoke side) which he placed over the pinion shaft, added the yoke nut with a washer and pulled the pinion up snug. To start with he used the same shim thickness as was on the previous pinion gear. Once he had a starting pinion depth to work with, then he added the detroit. (I should add we had previously pressed the carrier bearings onto the Detroit carrier (you can see them in the photo on my other post) THESE MUST BE COMPLETELY SEATED!!otherwise your ability to shim goes to ****. If you are replacing the axle bearings (mine were perfect, so no problem, you will also have to have the old bearings pressed off the axles and the new ones pressed on. Replace seals at same time.
Ok, back to the Detroit, once you have your detroit 'softly' set in, eyeball the engagement between the ring and pinion, you can see where contact is taking place. you want the gears to engage just a bit in from the ends of the pinion teeth, therefore the pinion should be slightly higher (towards you) than the ring gear. turn the pinion by hand, if things turn without locking up, its time to start playing with the shims. Was funny cause i'm reading the shop manual, the Detroit install manual, and Randy's diff setup instructions, which give all these measurements, etc. and the mechanic is doing everything by 'feel' LOL. took about 20 minutes of shifting shims before he was happy, then we started taking gear 'patterns'. First pattern was VERY close to what the manuals showed as 'optimum', i was impressed, but a bit biased towards the toe. At this point, he rotated the diff on the tires so pinion was skyward, and threw on the crush, the bearing etc. and and yoke, then with some serious torque on the pinion nut, proceeded to drive the yoke side bearing into its race. This is the part you take VERY slowly as you only get one shot at the crush or the whole thing has to come apart again and a new crush installed. In anyevent, we were using a 3/4 drive monster ratchet, with the handle of the HiLift as an extension bar [img]smile.gif[/img] works great by the way. Yoke was held against the ground by a 3 foot long and about 25 lb pipe wrench.
When he felt he was 'close', we rotated the diff again so the open end was skyward and put some torque down on the bearing caps. Then we wiped the ring gear, repainted and took some more patterns. Mechanic explained "pattern is EVERYTHING"..pattern was 'sweet' [img]smile.gif[/img] it had moved ever so slightly in from the edge and was covering most of the ring gear surface, both on drive and coast sides [img]smile.gif[/img] I was STOKED. There was just a tiny bit of 'slop' or lash as the diff was turned dry.
At this point, he rotated again, and we went back to work on tightening down the pinion. This he did about 1/4 turn at a time Finally, he turned just a bout an 1/8th turn and smiled, "THAT"S IT" he explained. Apparently with enough experience you can FEEL the initial contact with the crush, and then the slight "crush" as it does what its name suggests .
We rotated the diff again, turned the gear, slop was almost imperceptible, only by rocking ring gear forward and backwards, could you feel any lash in the diff. Lastly, torqued the carrier bearings to spec, wiped the ring and took another pattern. unreal. Randy's manual has a demo 'optimal' pattern that the manual explains is what you are shooting for but will amost never be able to achieve. Well, final pattern we achieved bore a striking resemblance to this pattern, I was REALLY impressed. We cleaned and examined the axles and bearings. After 110 thousand miles, everything was still sweet, so we poured a bit of gear oil on the bearings and seals and carefully reinstalled the axles and bolted em up. Closed up the diff and then rotated everything by hand. SWEET! just so you know, the new Detroit has a LOT less slop in it than the old style. Can't wait to get it into some dirt.
So, there you have it. I have to admit, without my questions and "help", he probably could've done the whole thing in about 2 hours. LOL. Anyway, the D44 front VAc axle is next, stay tuned. That one gets a new Ring and pinion the Powertrax No Slip, and front hubs.
(Axle day got called on account of Rain just as we finished the 20 [img]smile.gif[/img]
First, you will need a hydraulic press or access to a shop that has one. Do order a master install kit with the R&P's. I got Randy's, it had everything I needed. I advise you to pull the axle, makes the job one heck of a lot easier if this is your first time, and a couple of other reasons, primarily when trying to set pinion depth.
Regarding the detroit, the throw the detroit into the freezer, and the ring gear in the oven works sweet...i heated the ring to 200 degrees, the bolts drew it down onto the detroit VERY easily, no stress on the ring gear bolts or threads in the process. A case spreader was not necessary, the existing carrier and ring gear was easily leveraged out, the trick is to get it to move then get a grip on the carrier shims and pull one of em, then the whole thing just comes right out.
For setting pinion depth in the 20, the VERY experienced mechaninc showing me how to do all this rotated the diff on a set of tires so that the yoke end was pointing to the ground. He then installed the interior bearing race, bearing, shims etc. and set the pinion gear in-pushing them down to seat. He had a small metal plate for the other end (yoke side) which he placed over the pinion shaft, added the yoke nut with a washer and pulled the pinion up snug. To start with he used the same shim thickness as was on the previous pinion gear. Once he had a starting pinion depth to work with, then he added the detroit. (I should add we had previously pressed the carrier bearings onto the Detroit carrier (you can see them in the photo on my other post) THESE MUST BE COMPLETELY SEATED!!otherwise your ability to shim goes to ****. If you are replacing the axle bearings (mine were perfect, so no problem, you will also have to have the old bearings pressed off the axles and the new ones pressed on. Replace seals at same time.
Ok, back to the Detroit, once you have your detroit 'softly' set in, eyeball the engagement between the ring and pinion, you can see where contact is taking place. you want the gears to engage just a bit in from the ends of the pinion teeth, therefore the pinion should be slightly higher (towards you) than the ring gear. turn the pinion by hand, if things turn without locking up, its time to start playing with the shims. Was funny cause i'm reading the shop manual, the Detroit install manual, and Randy's diff setup instructions, which give all these measurements, etc. and the mechanic is doing everything by 'feel' LOL. took about 20 minutes of shifting shims before he was happy, then we started taking gear 'patterns'. First pattern was VERY close to what the manuals showed as 'optimum', i was impressed, but a bit biased towards the toe. At this point, he rotated the diff on the tires so pinion was skyward, and threw on the crush, the bearing etc. and and yoke, then with some serious torque on the pinion nut, proceeded to drive the yoke side bearing into its race. This is the part you take VERY slowly as you only get one shot at the crush or the whole thing has to come apart again and a new crush installed. In anyevent, we were using a 3/4 drive monster ratchet, with the handle of the HiLift as an extension bar [img]smile.gif[/img] works great by the way. Yoke was held against the ground by a 3 foot long and about 25 lb pipe wrench.
When he felt he was 'close', we rotated the diff again so the open end was skyward and put some torque down on the bearing caps. Then we wiped the ring gear, repainted and took some more patterns. Mechanic explained "pattern is EVERYTHING"..pattern was 'sweet' [img]smile.gif[/img] it had moved ever so slightly in from the edge and was covering most of the ring gear surface, both on drive and coast sides [img]smile.gif[/img] I was STOKED. There was just a tiny bit of 'slop' or lash as the diff was turned dry.
At this point, he rotated again, and we went back to work on tightening down the pinion. This he did about 1/4 turn at a time Finally, he turned just a bout an 1/8th turn and smiled, "THAT"S IT" he explained. Apparently with enough experience you can FEEL the initial contact with the crush, and then the slight "crush" as it does what its name suggests .
We rotated the diff again, turned the gear, slop was almost imperceptible, only by rocking ring gear forward and backwards, could you feel any lash in the diff. Lastly, torqued the carrier bearings to spec, wiped the ring and took another pattern. unreal. Randy's manual has a demo 'optimal' pattern that the manual explains is what you are shooting for but will amost never be able to achieve. Well, final pattern we achieved bore a striking resemblance to this pattern, I was REALLY impressed. We cleaned and examined the axles and bearings. After 110 thousand miles, everything was still sweet, so we poured a bit of gear oil on the bearings and seals and carefully reinstalled the axles and bolted em up. Closed up the diff and then rotated everything by hand. SWEET! just so you know, the new Detroit has a LOT less slop in it than the old style. Can't wait to get it into some dirt.
So, there you have it. I have to admit, without my questions and "help", he probably could've done the whole thing in about 2 hours. LOL. Anyway, the D44 front VAc axle is next, stay tuned. That one gets a new Ring and pinion the Powertrax No Slip, and front hubs.
(Axle day got called on account of Rain just as we finished the 20 [img]smile.gif[/img]
12k Ramsey,5spd and 205, 4.10\'s, Detroits front and rear,36\'s or 38\'s depending on mood 
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