Richmond Pro gear alert heads-up...

[Ed Wright]

Originally Posted by HandOverFist

Documented last night on our car and confirmed from another Class racer in KY...the new 12-bolt Pro gears coming from Richmond have the pinion distance stamped incorrectly on the pinion head. First clue will be when checking the distance the numbers will call for about .230 shim lol.

Look for packaging labeled "Made in Italy". Seems Richmond moved their operations to Italy and the workers are having problems converting from their metric system. My guess is this is going to be expensive for Richmond as the problem surely extends further than just the 12-bolt versions.

Wow! Going to do it the old fashioned way, using the pattern. Going to make set up go a little slower.

[HandOverFist]

My predictions are there are going to be a lot of "free" sets of gears flying out of Richmond shortly...major mistake...heads will roll.

[1320racer]

Richmond was bought out by Motive at least a year ago and manufacturing was moved over seas.

[HandOverFist]

The "Italian" stock just recently made it's debut...evidenced by the recent unavailability of gears through major vendors.

[ss wannabee]

Originally Posted by 1320racer

Richmond was bought out by Motive at least a year ago and manufacturing was moved over seas.

Getting tired of these moves and out-sourcing....HEY Motive....bring gear production
back to the USA!....WANT a "made in USA" product...in my Chevrolet race car!

American JOBS at stake!

[Alan Roehrich]

For the vast majority of OE 12 bolt housings, start with a 0.035" shim on the pinion. Odds are, you'll be within 0.005" of where you need to be. If you're taking a similar gear out, use the shim from the previous pinion, and you'll be within spitting distance.

The numbers they give you are the opinions of the guy running the Gleason machine they test the gears on. What matters is the pattern.

And yeah, unfortunately, Richmond hasn't been great lately, and Motive buying them is quite unlikely to improve that.

[Ed Wright]

A rear pinion bearing honed out to a slip fit would be handy for finding the correct pattern. I've heard of them. I've never seen one.

[Tod Lane]

Originally Posted by Ed Wright

A rear pinion bearing honed out to a slip fit would be handy for finding the correct pattern. I've heard of them. I've never seen one.

We made ours because we do so many in my shop. The RAYTECH tool is a big help too.

http://www.ratechmfg.com/toc.htm

Talk to Mary there.

Don't work for them, have used them and I am just passing along the info

[ss wannabee]

Originally Posted by Ed Wright

A rear pinion bearing honed out to a slip fit would be handy for finding the correct pattern. I've heard of them. I've never seen one.

Easy to do...I honed one when I was racing...and set up several rears with it.

Good thing I bought my 12-bolt gears when I did...my 5.86 was used with low runs,
and my 6.14 I bought NEW from Moroso...when ring & pinions were in the catalog....

That was a LONG time ago...so they were US-built...when I checked the Moroso's...
noticed that they were re-boxed Richmonds....no big deal!

[Pat Cook]

Originally Posted by Alan Roehrich

For the vast majority of OE 12 bolt housings, start with a 0.035" shim on the pinion. Odds are, you'll be within 0.005" of where you need to be. If you're taking a similar gear out, use the shim from the previous pinion, and you'll be within spitting distance.

The numbers they give you are the opinions of the guy running the Gleason machine they test the gears on. What matters is the pattern.

And yeah, unfortunately, Richmond hasn't been great lately, and Motive buying them is quite unlikely to improve that.

Started doing this a couple of years ago and have good success. Use the old shims and check the pattern and they are usual right on. The only one that I ran across was in a Jeep that a shop tried to setup....it was a mess. Didn't have the old shims took awhile to figure that one.