another ring and pinion install question

[marcusguy]

Ummm, I had an accident and dropped my pinion pretty hard. Unfortunately, the front edge of one of the teeth landed right on the metal axle and it dented it a little (the tooth). Basically it is bent a tiny bit to the coast side, not the drive side of the tooth, at the very front, by the face.

I've decided to run it and see what happens, what do you guys think? My hope that if it does fail that it won't take out the diff and maybe it will even be replaced under warranty... best case possible. Advice???

Marcus

 

[Georgia Mike]

My advise would be to file down the offending area to the original height before you reinstall it,but that's my unprofessional $.02

 

[Beezil]

how bad? pics?

I can't believe a tooth can bend just by dropping it?

 

[4ward]

I'd go beyond filing and use a dremel or die grinder and buff it. Sharp edges are your enemy.

I'd like to see a pic of this too. Unless you dropped it from 20', I don't see how you dented it either.

 

[Eagle]

I'd go beyond filing and use a dremel or die grinder and buff it. Sharp edges are your enemy.

Not just sharp edges, but also any protrusions. Generally if you drop or strike a chunk of steel and create a dent, there's also a small bump adjacent to the depression. If you have such a bump (high spot), it will be constantly wearing on your ring gear. A small depression on the coast side won't do any harm (I hope), but even a small raised area will.

 

[marcusguy]

Ya, I was REALLYised that it happened. The gears are Spicer too. I'm afraid that since I'm such stinking tight-wad that I don't have a digital and it's near impossible for me to get one.

It basically made a depression on the end of the tooth strait towards the yoke. Since the tooth is at an angle, there is also a small protrusion on the coast side of one of the teeth. I guess I'll end up grinding it and let you all know what happens. I figure that if people can grind the toe of a couple of teeth to get a cross pin out I can take a little of this tooth and live. We'll see.

Thanks for easing my mind a little guys
Marcus

 

[Beezil]

did it deflect the tooth?

I doubt it did, that's your only worry, and if its at the tip of the tooth, just grind it down and throw it in, polish off the protrusions.

I can't see what you are talking about, but I'm guessing its a little fleck of metal and you are probably not anywhere near the contact area.....

if it *did* deflect the tooth, I'd take the pinion back to where you got it from and declare it defective.

teeth should not bend.

I have pinions all over the basement, so today for fun I chucked one down the alley as far as I could......it scratched to hell on one side, but none of the teeth deflected at all.

 

[marcusguy]

Down the alley eh? Wow, sounds like fun. It was the corner of the tooth on the very front face and ya it did deflect a little (bent the corner towards the coast side). Infact, it actually had a small crack in it at the deflection. I used the dremel and ground it down, and made sure I ground the crack out too. I rounded it off really good and I think it will be fine. Luckily I didn't have to grind that much off. It was really strange though, like the metal was hard on the outside but pretty soft underneath.

The good news is that somehow I put the gears in and only had to make one small adjustment for the backlash. After switching one shim, the backlash and pattern were perfect. I keep checking the pattern because it seems to good to be true (I've only done a few sets now and the least I've to had pull and adjust is probably like 5-6 times, so I'm pretty happy).

I'll let you know if it blows up.

marcus