Bringing up the Rear Part IV

Just a few other pictures Ben sent over to me before it all gets sent to NY for install.

The ring gear is now installed on the LSD, and both were rebalanced – it’s now within 1/2 1000’s true – pretty good 🙂

One of the really tricky things when doing a ring and pinion install is setting spacing of the pinion relative to the ring. Since these are machined parts, there can be some differences in tolerances between one set and another. Shims are used to equalize things, so that the pinion has the right mesh pattern with the ring. This ensures that everything runs efficiently, without making noise, and without producing uncessary heat. You apply some paint to the ring and pinion and spin the assembly, and take note of where the 2 are meshing. When I sent this batch of stuff to Ben, I included a bunch of shims that we had laying around. Nissan sells 14 different size shims for these things, so it can be a bit arduous setting it up. The shims we sent down were close, as you can see from the pattern. Ben’s the consummate perfectionist though, and wrote me “as you can see from the pattern on the ring gear I have more adjusting to do. The pattern is acceptable in most shops but, not mine, I know it can be better. I will have to custom grind a shim about 8 to 10 thousands to get it to a standard I can be happy with”. Gotta love someone who only wants things a certain way when they leave his shop! When you’re out there picking an installer for anything as involved as a rear end, or a motor, etc, this is the sort of attention to detail you want. When that project leaves the shop’s doorstep, it’s essentially being signed off as being “perfect”. If something isn’t perfect, it comes back and bites you in the ass. Picking the right parts is important, but picking the right guy to make those parts work is essential. If anyone out there needs a terrific guy to set up their rear differential and/or ring and pinion, Ben @ PuddyMod Racing is your man!

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Faking the Funk

Fake it till you make it?

Longtime customer and friend Twan from TSE posted this up a few days ago in a “back in the day” thread. This was Englishtown circa 2004

Bringing up the Rear Part III

Things are nearing completion on the 4.3 final drive setup. Ben forwarded me some additional pics last night. We’ll have one more to share once we’re ready to install it. Here is a quick shot of the Quaife LSD I’m going to use, after being rebalanced. You usually don’t go this far, since time doesn’t allow for it and the parts are relatively well balanced from the factory. But since this thing has been a custom affair from day 1, Ben went the extra mile to rebalance the LSD. He also microfinished and cryo’d the ring and pinion gears. Should be back in my hands soon, then we get to swap it in and try it out – I can’t wait!