Novak Conversions Jeep Wrangler TJ radiator

Gear pattern opinion please!

DUB

TJ Enthusiast
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Eastern Washington
I feel like everything I look at that this is good? .008 backlash. I wiped the front paint off with my glove upon removing

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I have 10 hours into this $hit show today. I absolutely cannot get an oval contact patch on the drive side. Once I get the coast to look good, the drive side looks bad. Maybe it's the elite brand gears?

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I've never heard of Elite gear. Their website doesn't give a lot of info on their product.

After ten hours of trying to set up, I would walk away for the evening and start fresh in the morning.
I'm assuming you are using set up bearings. I would install the original pinion shim and set BL to spec. Then run a pattern check.
Go from there.
 
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I've never heard of Elite gear. Their website doesn't give a lot of info on their product.

After ten hours of trying to set up, I would walk away for the evening and start fresh in the morning.
I'm assuming you are using set up bearings. I would install the original pinion shim and set BL to spec. Then run a pattern check.
Go from there.

My gears were in pretty bad shape upon inspection, including the shims, they were beat and smashed up. The gear chart they sent says to start at .042, I have gone quote a ways down the rabbit hole either side of this and that is the best spot I have found. Not sure where to go from here?
 
My gears were in pretty bad shape upon inspection, including the shims, they were beat and smashed up. The gear chart they sent says to start at .042, I have gone quote a ways down the rabbit hole either side of this and that is the best spot I have found. Not sure where to go from here?

Blackjack and hosejockey are the experts. If you can wait for those guys it would be best
 
You are not that far off. Some gears are not going to give you that pretty oval. Just focus on getting the pattern centered from root to crown and lean on the drive side pattern.

Was going to go a bit deeper on the pinion tomorrow but it hasn't seemed to like that any better before. I did move the ring gear out just a bit so maybe it will work with a couple more thou under the pinion.
 
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Any additional input here at all? This is the absolute best pattern I can achieve. .009 backlash and a thou deeper it looks too close, a thou less and the drive side starts to run off the end.

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Any additional input here at all? This is the absolute best pattern I can achieve. .009 backlash and a thou deeper it looks too close, a thou less and the drive side starts to run off the end.

View attachment 458365

View attachment 458366

That is way too shallow. Your previous pattern was better. Also make sure that the carrier shims are seated fully and the bearing caps are torqued each time as well.
 
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If I shim the pinion out more I tend to get that harsher straight line

If you know what shim got you the hard line you should be able to split the difference with this last pattern and end up pretty close.
 
Novak Conversions Jeep Wrangler TJ radiator