Took the day off from work to finish my 3.55 install. Put in the extra clutches as well (four verus three per side).Not hard, but sure took a long time. The hardest part was trying to get a good read on the pattern. I am not certain that the pattern was as good as I could get it, or for that matter, even adequate. This is the only part of the job that worried me.
I used the Heavy Duty pinion shims from FRPP (puts the shims behind the bearing cup). I liked that a lot, since I didn't have to press off/on the pinion bearing to change the pinion depth.
On the second try (0.024" pinion shims), the pattern seemed OK. Backlash was about 0.013" to 0.014". Went for a test ride, and I can't hear anything, so maybe I did it right.
I didn't notice much of a seat-of-the-pants change in acceleration, but maybe I will later. I only test drove it about five miles or so in town. The biggest difference is that I can now power-brake and smoke my 255's. My Lo-Po could never do that before!
I put in 3.55's mainly because I put 4.10's in my E150 (paid someone to do that job ($200)) and it had 3.55's (with about 40k miles on them), so I considered it a freebie! But I wanted to do my own baby myself.Now I just have to wait on my 20 tooth speedometer gear from Steeda (didn't order it till today).
One of the web-sites that I visited seemed to indicate that rear gears are pretty tolerant of being off a thousandth or two. What is your-alls experience with pattern being close or for that matter, reading the pattern successfully?
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