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Rearend CapTorque Specs needed, and the whole rearend saga

To: <tigers@autox.team.net>
Subject: Rearend CapTorque Specs needed, and the whole rearend saga
From: "Tom Witt" <wittsend@jps.net>
Date: Tue, 7 Nov 2000 15:23:20 -0800
Does anyone know the rearend cap torque settings? They are not listed in the
manual, but I remember someone mentioning the value a while back. I thought
it was in the range of  65 to 85 ft.lbs. I therefore chose the value of 75
ft.lbs., but if it makes a difference I will change it before I bolt the
cover on.
If you have nothing better to do waiting for election returns, there is
always the following story of my rearend setup saga:
Well it seems I have finally finished installing the used set of 2:88 gears
in the rearend. My gage block and depth mic worked very well at setting the
pinion depth. That gage block I made about 23 years ago and not having a use
for it at the time I gave it to my Stepfather. When He died I got it back
(thats also how I got the depth mic too). Its hard to say with a house full
of clutter, but I guess you should never get rid of anything. My homemade
case spreader worked great. It was just three pieces of 3/8" x 2 1/2" x 15"
steel I had. I bolted the corners together forming a squared letter C. About
a third of the way from the corners I installed a grade 8 bolt (see, I'm not
always so cheap) on each opposing pieces to fit into the spreader receiving
holes on the rearend. To create the spread force I used the two threaded
portions of my coil spring compressor threaded way down on the bolts. I
ground notches into the opposing end of the bars to hold the hooked end in
place, then I slipped a pipe over the threaded portion to keep the bolts in
contact with each other. To keep it all from slipping around I used a number
of those valve cover hold down plates secured in the case cover bolt holes.
I tightened the spreader bolts against each other, the case spread to .007
and the diff. just barely (with a slight nudge) slipped in. In the end I
wound up with .0065 endplay on a .007 spec-ed ring gear. What kind of
markings did I get. Well....... sort of close. The original marking, I'm
sure due to wear, was closer to the heel than I got. Maybe not initally, but
with future wear being closer to the toe it does give me somewhere to "wear"
to. The distance to the root seemed to be right on.  Seeing the markings can
be a real pain. I didn't know where to get white or red lead so I tried lots
of other stuff. That would be stuff like the wife's foot cream colored with
food coloring, car wax (hey, when dried it doesn't smear), a quick blast of
spray paint, but none of it really worked (eventually I found that a quick
wipe of a cheap water based marker and a strong rub through the gears worked
sufficently, but that was found much later). -----  Finally I got fed up and
coated the gears with fine valve lapping compound and spun them around a few
times. I figured this served two purposes. One, it should show the mark (it
did) and two it would help to initiate the "wearing in" of the gears where
they were. Mind you I did this without the rear pinion bearing installed (I
did apply pressure to the top of the pinion when spinning) and the diff. was
positioned by selecting, then pushing the shims between the carrier bearing
race and the axle tubes. This way, once setup I could take it apart easily
and clean it, add the preload and install the shims in the proper place.
Might I add I went over the ring and pinion with 600 grit paper to "soften"
the lapping. I also did not have the tension scale to measure pinion bearing
preload. However, I did find from the setting I eventually chose
hat:  -.001 made the pinion turn very stiff, and +.001 made it spin freely.
The middle of those two settings turned smoothly, but with some degree of
effort. Should you want /need (for lack of funds) to do this yourself I hope
I have offered some encouragment. I will not know the final results for
about 8 months or more as I have lots of other (hopefully low budget, --- at
least as low budget as a Tiger can be) repairs to make. To me this is a
hobby. I really like the challenge (most of the time) of finding "another"
way (like the cheapest way) of doing things. If you could have seen the
water that originally came out of the case when I drained it, the pinion
that moved like a rocker arm and the .030 plus freeplay of the carrier I had
you can understand this to be a significant improvement. By the way if your
in the Ventura County (Calif.) area and need a case spreader... well I
really hope to never have to use it again so your welcome to borrow it.
Thanks for your input and for listening, Tom Witt

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