OEM gear setup?

[RoadRanger]

Watched a boatload of re-gearing YouTubes and haven't seen anything on how the factory sets up gears? With 204K on my TJ I'll assume they did a good enough job without patterning and spending hours shimming. I'd be surprised if they spent more than 15 minutes on it LOL. Have we become brainwashed by the race crowd who need perfect setups to handle the built engines they run? I'm sticking with the 2.5L stock and suspect just setting the measured pinion depth and backlash to stock numbers would be fine?

 

[machoheadgames]

The factory has tools to measure the housings and gears so they pretty much know exactly what shims each axle/gear combo needs to run right.

That said, considering the sheer number of axles out there running perfectly fine, and factoring in that humans are not perfect, I would be willing to bet that the setup does not need to be as perfect as we want to make it when we do the job. But, it’s always best to strive for the best you can do.

 

[Rickyd]

The factory has tools to measure the housings and gears so they pretty much know exactly what shims each axle/gear combo needs to run right.

That said, considering the sheer number of axles out there running perfectly fine, and factoring in that humans are not perfect, I would be willing to bet that the setup does not need to be as perfect as we want to make it when we do the job. But, it’s always best to strive for the best you can do.

If it's quiet and doesn't grenade then the pattern can be anything. Achieving those two goals is where the rub is though!