Hey all, I'm building a 10 bolt and I have a problem. My guy is setting up the gears and the pinion gear has no mark on it to set the pinion depth. My guy says to buy a new set of gears as it will be cheaper than paying him to experiment to get it right. Any shortcuts or way around it?-Mike

not that i know of, just trial and error, and if that the case, just get a new set of gears, they are not that expensive.

The pinions for the 10-bolt AFAIK NEVER have markings. At least, I don't recall ever seeing any.

1. Buy a pinion depth gauge and set it to the factory spec.

2. Take a pinion bearing, hone the bore out with a brake cyl hone, and use that on the pinion so that it's easy to do the trial and error thing; then put a "normal" one on once the setting is found.

3. EVERY SINGLE 7½" 10-bolt I have ever worked on, came with a .035" shim from the factory. As long as these aren't the Richmond drag race gears (which would be a HUGE MISTAKE if your car will EVER see street duty) then put a .035" shim in it, and check the results. I'd put 99.999% odds on it turning out within tolerance.

4. Use a solid spacer instead of a crush sleeve, to make trial-and-error easier.

I'm not any kind of "pro" or anything, just yerbasic backyard shadetree type; ccan't be that hard to get around that, if somebody as stupid as me can manage it.

Thanks for the speedy replies !!!!

They are a used set of factory gears out of a 4rth gen. I stripped. I built the rear right and used a solid spacer. So, I just try the .035" and it's 99.99999% that that will be fine ?????

Yeah, just what Sofa said. I rebuilt mine this spring having never done it before and it came out fine. Did it all on jackstands and never took the rear out of the car. The solid spacer and the ground out bearing are the keys and make it real easy. I had to play a bit with the preload shims on the carrier but it just took a little time. Good luck.

I would buy gears that come with a check height (PS. richmonds and motive should) and do it right. Using a 35 shim is a guess that may end you up with noisy gears that you will hate driving on. It is not worth chancing it. Different tolerances in bearings and housings will affect the pinion depth, I have done gears before and found this to be the case. This is the best advice I can give you. Do it right or take the chance you will pay the price later.

Well, how about I start with a .035" Shim and go from there? At least it's a starting point....

As long as you are using the solid spacer and the ground out bearing to try different sizes you can do it all day. I didn't even take the rear end out of the car when I did it. It was kind of annoying with the limited space but after putting it together 5 or 6 times I got it right. If you want to spend the coin on a new gear set by all means go that way. I gave up pretending I'm a race driver long ago, now my car is just for cruising around. It doesn't need big dollar new stuff. I put in used gears with a new bearing set. No probs so far.