i think i messed up

[69k5]

first let me say i have only a rough idea of how to do this, but i love to take stuff apart.

I took the third member out of my eaton to put in the locker. in my excitement I took the bearing caps off, and started to take the carrier out. I forgot to measure the backlash. can i just put it back in and check it or do i have to start from scratch. i didnt move anything else. If it doesnt nmatter I am gonna feel stupid. How do i find what the backlash should be?

thanks

69k5

[69oldie]

you need to get the back lash correct. if you put for instance, less backlash than you had before, you are going to break/crack the ring gear and or the pinion gear. this will happen because the "teeth" will now be running @ a spot where they were not before. why this is bad is because all the forces will no longer be distributed evenly along the surfaces of the teeth like once before. the forces will now all be focused only on the new spot that the teeth come in contact with each other. this is a bad situation especially if you are towing or hauling heavy loads. you will also probably get gear noise. you need to someone who knows how to find that original "sweet spot" were the gears originally broke in together. it isn't hard, but if you don't now what you are doing it will seem very hard and expensive to replace with new gears.
good luck!
"69oldie"

[cdowns]

hope you marked the bearing caps to put them back correctly

[69k5]

i did at least mark the bearing caps.

69k5