Richmond Pro gear alert heads-up...

[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

[Ed Wright]

Thanks Todd! I have an old Zoom Gear set up tool. (Bought it new, I'm old) Never tried to hone one myself. I think they used to sell them, but never found one to buy.

[James Sessoms]

The pinion set up tool that T&D makes is probably the best tool you can get. With the information that is provided with the tool you can figure all the necessary dimentions in the pinion set up process with no information from the gear manufacture. Now most of the readers of this site are going to be using a 10 bolt or 12 bolt gm, 9" ford or a Dana. All of these styles of rear ends are supported by this tool. If you get into a 10.25 or 10.50 sterling housing which can be found in most of your Ford F250 pickups I have found no one makes a set up tool or a pinion bearing pulling tool for these rears. Randys ring and pinion, Raytech and some other companies sell a set up pinion bearing that is honed out so you can set the pinion up by trial and error and not damaging the bearing by pressing it on and trying to remove it. What I have found with the gear manufactures most of this stuff is comming from over seas, CHINA, and the tolerances and spec suck. I know everyone remembers the chile Goodyear tires. When you get a new gear check, check, check every dimention in the protduct that you are getting. Just my 2 cents worth. Good luck

[Run to Rund]

I have had good results with Motive gears made in Italy. This scribing error may not be such a big deal--I can't imagine someone setting up gears and not bothering to check the pattern. The Richmond tooling was worn out so Motive decided to go with their Italian supplier for both brands after buying Richmond.

An auto machine shop with a connecting rod rebuilding hone can easily open the ID of a bearing to use as a slip fit trial pinion bearing.

[tim worner]

May be they will be available at Poppa Johns with any full size pizza.

[Tod Lane]

Originally Posted by Run to Rund

I have had good results with Motive gears made in Italy. This scribing error may not be such a big deal--I can't imagine someone setting up gears and not bothering to check the pattern. The Richmond tooling was worn out so Motive decided to go with their Italian supplier for both brands after buying Richmond.

An auto machine shop with a connecting rod rebuilding hone can easily open the ID of a bearing to use as a slip fit trial pinion bearing.

I have had the same experience. We use some Italian made gears in heavy duty stuff that run fine.

[Paul Merolla]

Originally Posted by Tod Lane

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

Good info, Tod - I wish I had heard of them before I did my 12-bolt. What about their "Smart Sleeve?" They say duty cycle is better than a spacer and shims. http://www.ratechmfg.com/smart%20sleeve.htm
That would eliminate the idea of honing a bearing.
As a side note, I bought used gears when I was putting the car together. When I went to press the pinion bearing on, it just slid over by hand. Turns out the previous owner's setup guy takes a little off all his pinions to make setup easier. A few people predicted disaster at the time, but after 60 or so runs this year the oil came out clean and the pattern looks great.

[Tod Lane]

Originally Posted by Paul Merolla

Good info, Tod - I wish I had heard of them before I did my 12-bolt. What about their "Smart Sleeve?" They say duty cycle is better than a spacer and shims. http://www.ratechmfg.com/smart%20sleeve.htm
That would eliminate the idea of honing a bearing.
As a side note, I bought used gears when I was putting the car together. When I went to press the pinion bearing on, it just slid over by hand. Turns out the previous owner's setup guy takes a little off all his pinions to make setup easier. A few people predicted disaster at the time, but after 60 or so runs this year the oil came out clean and the pattern looks great.

We pretty much use the smart sleeve and pitch the regular crush sleeves or shim and spacers in most applications. MUCH easier to set preload than the old style crush sleeve.

Alot of their stuff is made there in cincy and pricing is good.

[HandOverFist]

I may try the "Smart Sleeve" of Ratech's on the next gearset...supposedly more stable with less than half of the normal torque values.