A month or two ago Rusty started knocking on the way home. It sounded like a rod knock... louder under load and then quiet when coasting. The weird thing was I couldn't get it to knock when sitting still with clutch engaged.
I opened the pan inspection access and checked all the shims... ok.
Yesterday I pulled the wheels and checked and repacked the rear outer bearings. There was about 0.035" side to side play. That wasn't it, the sound persisted.
So today I pulled the rear end out and drained all the pretty golden metal-flake color oil from the pumpkin (bronze thrust washers). I then pulled the drive shaft out and this is what I found...
What a mess. Never actually seen that before, a broken tooth. I suppose I have lead a sheltered life!!
I forgot to mention that the last time I looked at this ring gear it looked just fine. That was 6 years ago when it had a broken pinion gear in there.
Terry, I once had the same problem in my Haigh's chocolate van. One tooth broke out in two pieces. Had you been riding with me, you would not have picked up any noise to speak of, until I hit trailing throttle to slow down. Once under way again I drove all the way home with that tooth missing. It made no difference under load, but noisy slowing down.
My crown wheel was in much better condition than yours though.
Allan from down under.
I bet the ring gear was damaged when the pinion broke previously. They should be replaced as a set.
Tony,
I went to the junk pile... er parts department this morning and found two ring gears.
One has worn teeth...
Since you are doing so much work on your car, I would suggest you look for better gears. Both the ones pictured are not very good. The one with the tooth missing is no good at all, and the other one will be noisy and could fail soon.
Norm
Norman, I agree. That is what I am hoping to do.
TH
Terry: I had the same problem on a Colorado/Wyoming Tour. I hit a cattle guard doing over 40 MPH. The guard was at least 4 inches deep and perpendicular. Apparently in Wyoming the state does not post warning signs at cattle guards. Colorado always post warning signs. I broke both the pinion gear and the ring gear. Boy there was 100% neutral after that. The most embarrassing part was the fact that I was wagon boss. Wagon bosses are not suppose to break down.
I had some rear end oil that brass color in one of my T cars. Somehow a brass thrust washer broke and the ring and pinion chewed up the washer. The ring and pinion must be tough, as they were not broken. A new brass washer and the rear end was ready to go again.
Dave H.
I remember that cattle crossing. It scared the heck out of me and my brother when we blew across it at 50 MPH. We survived it.
Be_Zero_Be
Hmm, that second gear must have been on Meth!
TERRY! GIVE ME A CALL!
I cannot guarantee a perfect gear, but I am pretty sure I can let you have one that is much better than anything you have pictured. And I am close by. Besides, I think I owe you a part or two.
Drive carefully, and enjoy, W2
I popped the top of a king pin off on one of those Colorado/Wyoming cattle guards. Dave graciously got one for me and I replaced it in the parking lot. It didn't affect the handling as just the head cam off but the shaft remained in the upper eye of the axle.
Cattle guards and railroad crossings deserve respect.
Erik Barrett to the Rescue....AGAIN!!!
Because I lost a tooth from my ring gear (see previous posts) I needed help from the T community to find the parts I need for repair. Here you can see the broken ring gear... and there's the tooth!
Makes checking gear lash easy!
Bingo! Here it is in position:
That is a great idea! Wish I had a setup like that... All the measuring and hoping/praying/lifting/more measuring I did... And once I was done, I only "think" I am in the ball park... 500-600 miles later...
This forum is great... Happy Friday!
Cheers
Justin
Terry; Thanks for posting the photo of Eric's cut out housing for checking the ring and pinion back lash. Ford did'nt go to that much trouble back in the day. Now that the gears have years of wear on them its a good idea to check them. How much back lash do you give them. I had planned to cut a housing out like that but have not done it yet.
I would like to mention that no usable T parts were sacrificed to make the tool seen here. I made it from a housing that was cut down into a jack stand at some time prior. I also have one for setting up earlier rear ends with the enclosed bolt pinion spool.
I like about .010" backlash on the ring&pinion gears. Being able to see the mesh of the gears using this tool helps to set the depth of the pinion gear prior to shimming up the carrier for backlash on the gears.
Don is right about the old time repairs, just replace all worn out parts, put it back together, and hit the road. These days you have to be a little creative to use what you have available, especially when building a Ruckstell. Do it once and do it right for safety's sake at least.
Erik
If you look closely at the pictures of the gears posted above, you will notice that some are worn to the point there is a notch or offset in the teeth. Those gears were working fine, however, maybe a little lash and noise. Then someone disassembles the unit and tries to improve the gear lash by setting to original standards. That puts a lot of pressure on the high point of the teeth and leads to chipping off one or more teeth.
If one is going to reuse used gears, it is important to set the lash greater than the original specs. You need to be sure the mesh will not cause undue pressure on the high points.
Better use new or less worn gears.
Norm
Norm, not sure which gears you are talking about. All the photos are mine. The first photo shows a ring gear I had in there 6 years ago when that ten tooth pinion broke. It has been running fine for 6 years since the current ten tooth was placed. I would not have used the gear if it showed wear like you see there. It's wear was more like that you see on the last photo (but without broken teeth) 6 years ago.
I drive my car hard for many thousands of miles... that rear end is plain wore out! The lash must have been way too big... there was no recent reset to factory specs.
I assume you are right about what can happen when you tighten up a worn out rear end, but I'm really not sure how that applies to this worn out rear end which was not reset to close tolerances.
Thanks to Erik's good ("less worn") gears I am about to put the car back to stock gearing with an 11 tooth pinion gear.
You can see my worn out 10 tooth pinion in the photo with Erik's tool in place. That is the third one I've had in this rear end in just the last 20 years. I am convinced that the ten tooth pinions are harder on the ring gears than the stock gears are. I will get back and post a photo of the stock gears and how much wear they show after I run them for ten to 20 years....that should be 20,000- 50,000 miles.
TH