ok i see a small chip in my pinion, on one tooth. the chip is in the valley where the tooth makes contact with the ring.

top of the pirion --head-- in the valley.

replace it? file it down??

 

Replace it...beginning of the end of the pinion tooth. Metal fatique. Get a high powered magnifying glass and you'll likely see a hairline crack starting at the chip. Virtually impossible to stop a fatique crack from forming once you get any damage in this area of the tooth.

The " root " area ( Valley ) of the pinion tooth has the highest loading. Usually when a pinion tooth fails it will fail in this area.
Will eventually just shear off.

 

i called randys ring and pinion, described the chip....they said it would be ok....

who knows....i may run it, i may not....id rather NOT run it....

too bad there arent any places around here that specialize in it...id ask them...anyways heres a pic of where it is....

this isnt the actual pinion, its just a pic i grabbed off the web, and drew where the crack is

 

another pic

 

Ok...that's not in too bad of an area. Chip is at very end of pinion valley where loading is less. One thing though is important,
you stated in your second post:

Quote " this isnt the actual pinion, its just a pic i grabbed off the web, and drew where the crack is

Is it a crack or is it a chip? Important difference. If it's a crack forget about it. That tooth will fail.

If it's a chip, you can probably grind a radius where the chip is with a fine stone on a Rotary tool like a Dremel. That's what I would do. Being on the end like that, you can get at it. If it was in the middle of the root it would be much harder.

 

yeah i ment chip, not crack, sorry about that