Anybody make a better and or cheaper pinion depth gauge than summit or jegs? I 'm about to buy one, and looking for any suggestions. there are a couple on ebay , but for the money i'd rather spend another 20-30 bucks and have a new dial indicator. i if i knew who used it i wouldn't be as picky about it being used.
Rob.... If you are looking at the Ratech (RAT Series) Pinion depth setting tool, from Summit, I would not recommend it...it's very inaccurate. If you need a depth gauge, I'd go with the dial indicator type... When I set-up my 12 bolt, I found the best way to set pinion depth is to judge the wear pattern & not bother with a depth gauge.... Just my $.02 Tom:TU:
How many rears are you gonna set-up ? If this is it or under 5 in your life...DO NOT BOTHER. JUst hone out a new pinion bearing and use it. Start with the original shim and work from there. It will save you tons and you can put that money somewhere else. Jim
I also recommend using a honed out head bearing, even you do several rearends a year. Lets you mock it up as many times as you want with different shims until you get the correct contact pattern. That's your ultimate goal anyway. I have honed out bearings for each common application. Cost is a single bearing per type of rearend, you don't even need a race for it. Variation between bearings is extremely small.
I bought a pinion depth gauge from summit and did not like it and did like the abouve said . Hone the bearings and look at the pattern , easy to change shims it pattern not right .
If you really want to get anal. You can measure your set-up bearing on a true flat surface with a race and use the dial indicator to tell you the actual difference in 1000 of inches then just add or subtract it from what you patterned it with. example: if your setup bearing is .002 more height then the press on fininsh bearing then you need to subtract .002 of your shim pack to get the exact position the set-up bearing was in with the new press on bearing. When checking your bearings the must be put in a good race and you must use the same race for each one and you may have to set it up on a factory thick shim as the cage may protrude throught the race some for a true depth reading. Try to keep everything in the same spot on the flat plate suface as to keep down variances to a minumum. Good luck guys and remember if you run into trouble get me on jdrace.com for some help... Or here too if I am looking. Take care, Jim
Thanks for advice. I have a couple here that would do it for me, but... I need to learn how to do this myself. I have everything else..... indicators, mic.... The rear already has a well setup 3.31 12 bolt posi with new bearings/seals. Drives nice but I need to match my cam and carb a little better. So in goes a set of gm 3.73's. I still need to buy the pinion bearing and shims. any suggestions where? Does IBT have what I want there? I usually find them cheaper and easer to deal with than the idiot a$$ auto parts store. I'd rather order them somewhere than deal with them. If you sell a shim kit/sleeve less bearings or with just the pinion bearing I'm interested. Carrier bearings are new. Now i just need to get car out of trailer:laugh:
