Reading through past threads on ring and pinion gears I see there have been problems with new ring and pinion sets. Have these issues been resolved?
That was a few years back.I bought a new set of 3:1 gears,and have had no problems for the last 10-12 years.
I picked up an unused crownwheel & pinion last weekend. The guy I bought it off said he purchased it a few years ago (maybe 10 or 20) and it was made in Argentina. Is this likely to be one of the problem ones? I'm about to start rebuilding my axle and don't want to put in anything flakey.
What kind of failures were people seeing?
Compare the pinion keyway placement in the gear sets Stan Howe bought in 2007 in this thread: http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/29/33983.html
to the correctly made pinions he received in 2008: http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/50893/72505.html?1226694987#POST131206
So the keyway placement in the pinion is the first thing to look for but there may have been other issues to look for with Argentinian made repro parts - some members here will know for sure.
Three years ago I bought a new ring & pinion for the touring. The bolt holes on the ring gear were beside the slots, not the teeth. This had the pinion teeth hitting some of the bolts. It was an easy fix with a little grinding on the bolt ends. Otherwise, no problem so far.
Andrew, I heard the Argentina gears were soft and was advised not to use them. I think there was some mention of that in Tinkerin Tips. I decided against using the one set I had.