Question on gear pattern

[Tigger]

Been working on the rebuild of the 8.8 from my Saleen for some time now. This is all new to me. I rebuilt the trac-loc (easy). Installed all new bearings and now I am in the middle of setting up a set of used 3.55's that I took out of my 91 ranger. Gears have approximately 70k on them. I've been struggling with the pattern for a while but after reading up on things I finally figured out that there is a difference between early ford 8.8 gears and the ones you can buy now. My gears are face milled as opposed to face hobbed which is what is sold now. Each require a different setup procedure. Now that I have that figured out I think I am getting closer on the pattern. Last go around I had reduce the pinion shim thickness. Bearing preload and backlash are within spec. Now the drive side looks better but still closer to the toe than to the middle. Coast side does not seem to have a pattern now. Any idea why this is? I was thinking to reduce the pinion thickness by another .002 to get the drive side closer to the middle but I am still wondering what is going on with the coast side. Any help with be appreciated.

Coast side


Drive side

[cb84capri]

This is how setting up used gears goes. Have you tried using the marking compound on the pinion gear teeth and rolling it onto the ring gear? How did you check pinion depth in the housing? Did you reuse the pinion gear shim from the old gearset with the new set?

Cale

[Tigger]

No but that is a good idea. I will try that tomorrow. I started with the pinion shim from the original gear set but the pattern was off. Then I started adjusting the pattern with the current Ford Racing instructions and everything got all out of whack. Now I don't remember what size the original shim was. I should have wrote it down. Now I am writing everything down.