I replaced the thrust washers in the axle. I checked the old washers for size and added a few thousands for wear. The old washers were Babbitt and looked very good but I changed them. I made the new ones about 3 to 4 thousands thicker than the old ones. I reassembled the housings and now the drive shaft will not slide into the ring gear. How are you going to check the gear lash and gear pattern with the housings in place? I have looked in all the Model T books I have and could not find how to find how thick you make the thrust washers. before I tried to install the drive shaft I made sure the carrier turned and was not bound up. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me. Bob
I haven't looked lately, but doesn't Glen cover this in the MTFCA axle book?
You have to use 1 side of the housing and the driveshaft to set the backlash on the ring and pinion, then fit the washer on the other side to the second housing.
I hope this picture will help, axle housing verticle, driveshaft horizontal. Jim
Bob, James's photo shows how the backlash is checked. However, there are some tricks to getting it done. I presume the assembly rotated freely when you had the two halves bolted together, so the clearances should be OK. If you set it up as in the photo and the backlash is too tight, then the diff centre needs to be moved away from the pinion.
This can be done in two ways, by shimming the driveshaft assembly out with gaskets between the spool and the housing, or, by juggling the thrust washers and thrust plates. When I re-build a diff I like to make the thrust washers two different thicknesses, by .007 -.010" This lets me juggle the washers to get the spacing correct for the backlash.
Hope this helps.
Allan from down under.
Shimming the driveshaft assy. out or adjusting the thrust bearing thickness does not produce the same result, as suggested above. If you have binding, you will certainly need to do one or the other to correct it but, it depends on where along the tooth face the binding is occurring.
If the gear teeth bind near the "big end" of the pinion, then the pinion needs to be shimmed back. If the gear teeth contact is even along the tooth face but simply meshing too close to each other, then the thrust bearing needs to be trimmed to move the ring gear away from the pinion.
Bob
You just may have a simple install problem and the ring lash could be ok.
The torque tube won't slide into the housing if they are bolted together, release the bolts around the pumpkin so that the lock washers are loose, then the flange of the pinion housing/pinion gear will side into the rear housing as the sections are parted somewhat.