Stumpi
New member
I'm having trouble setting up the front diff on my Ford 1210. I can only get reasonable tooth contact at large backlash settings and the coast (reverse) side is contacting at the toe no matter what I do.
Some background: I just bought the machine 2 months ago with 590 hrs. It is equiped with a Woods 348 mower and it has probably spent its whole life mowing. A few days after getting it home I noticed a lot of gear noise (it was a consistant clattering sound that changed with speed) coming from the front axle as speed over 4 mph with the 4wd disenagaed. It was still present at lower speeds but could be heard over the engine above 4 mph. With the 4wd engaged it was quiet. I mowed with it at 3ish mph for another 10 hrs til I had time to take it apart.
When I did I found the pinion nuts were loose but still had their keeper in place and the pinion bearings were a little gritty but otherwise looked fine. There were some chunks missing out of the outter perimeter of the ring gear, at the top of the teeth (visible in pictures). The ring and pinion gears looked fine otherwise, no disernable wear ridge, faces look good. I renewed the pinion bearings, checked the outter drive units and tried to setup the diff using prussian blue.
I first set the carrier preload according to my I&T manual. Install more shims than needed and assemble the carrier and right and left housings, measure the gap between housings with a feeler gage and reduce shims by that amount. Then I installed the pinion with a few shims and the thrust washer and set the preload roughly to spec. Above 5 teeth on the ring gear were painted with prussian blue and the carrier, axles, carrier shims, and housings installed. A strap was placed on the pinion shaft and by stepping on it load was applied to the pinion shaft. The axles were then rotated a few turns in each direction and the carrier removed to check the pattern.
That last step began about 2pm yesterday. I didn't go to bed til 1am and was right back at it from 9am to 12pm today. I have tried increasing pinion depth, decreasing it to the point of no shims, just the thrust washer. I have tried setting the backlash to spec (4-6 thousandths) and setting it very loose. No matter what I do I cannot get the pattern on the coast side of the teeth to center, it is always toward the toe (inside) of the ring gear. The only way I was able to center it on the drive side was at a very large backlash of around 15-25 thouandths (my dial indicator broke last night). The pattern otherwise drifts toward the toe. Attached below is the pattern of this setup, the best of all attempts. There is a small but equal amount of clatter in both directions now unlike before where there was a lot with the coast side in contact. This is the pattern interpretation I've been using.
So what do you guys think? Am I doing something wrong? Are the ring and pinion trashed? Should I just try it with the large backlash? My intention is to install a plow and push snow with it this winter and I don't want to spend a week mid snow storm with this thing apart again.
Some background: I just bought the machine 2 months ago with 590 hrs. It is equiped with a Woods 348 mower and it has probably spent its whole life mowing. A few days after getting it home I noticed a lot of gear noise (it was a consistant clattering sound that changed with speed) coming from the front axle as speed over 4 mph with the 4wd disenagaed. It was still present at lower speeds but could be heard over the engine above 4 mph. With the 4wd engaged it was quiet. I mowed with it at 3ish mph for another 10 hrs til I had time to take it apart.
When I did I found the pinion nuts were loose but still had their keeper in place and the pinion bearings were a little gritty but otherwise looked fine. There were some chunks missing out of the outter perimeter of the ring gear, at the top of the teeth (visible in pictures). The ring and pinion gears looked fine otherwise, no disernable wear ridge, faces look good. I renewed the pinion bearings, checked the outter drive units and tried to setup the diff using prussian blue.
I first set the carrier preload according to my I&T manual. Install more shims than needed and assemble the carrier and right and left housings, measure the gap between housings with a feeler gage and reduce shims by that amount. Then I installed the pinion with a few shims and the thrust washer and set the preload roughly to spec. Above 5 teeth on the ring gear were painted with prussian blue and the carrier, axles, carrier shims, and housings installed. A strap was placed on the pinion shaft and by stepping on it load was applied to the pinion shaft. The axles were then rotated a few turns in each direction and the carrier removed to check the pattern.
That last step began about 2pm yesterday. I didn't go to bed til 1am and was right back at it from 9am to 12pm today. I have tried increasing pinion depth, decreasing it to the point of no shims, just the thrust washer. I have tried setting the backlash to spec (4-6 thousandths) and setting it very loose. No matter what I do I cannot get the pattern on the coast side of the teeth to center, it is always toward the toe (inside) of the ring gear. The only way I was able to center it on the drive side was at a very large backlash of around 15-25 thouandths (my dial indicator broke last night). The pattern otherwise drifts toward the toe. Attached below is the pattern of this setup, the best of all attempts. There is a small but equal amount of clatter in both directions now unlike before where there was a lot with the coast side in contact. This is the pattern interpretation I've been using.
So what do you guys think? Am I doing something wrong? Are the ring and pinion trashed? Should I just try it with the large backlash? My intention is to install a plow and push snow with it this winter and I don't want to spend a week mid snow storm with this thing apart again.
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