ive been doing some searching on the boards and im having trouble locating what im looking for. so could one of you shine in to help me out?
i have a 90 camaro that ive been doing some playing around with. my problem lies in the rearend. the car has the "oh" so famous 273 open rearend <10 bolt> and i have a 95 z28 323 rearend with the posi unit. i carefully gutted the 95 rear and marked everything. shims and all. now when i go to put this into my rearend which shims do i use? the posi shims out of the 95z? or my factory. my quess would be the 95z. im also debating on getting a backlash tool also.. what do you guys think?
thanks guys!

 

I always use the shims that came with the housing for my initial setup - regardless of what I am putting in that housing.

I set backlash between .012" and .014"

 

imo you should install your original shims and mark them but still make sure you still have the right clearance! don't wanna mess up somethin that important! so gonna hafta agree with Kris and say use ur original shims but "measure twice install once"

 

so being my initial setup was a open unit it shouldnt matter on the shims that much really? either way i think im going to still try to backlash it. just didnt know what shims to start with. thanks guys:P

 

Shims go with the housing. The housing is the part that varies.

Carriers and gears are made with EXTREME precision. Housings are ALL OVER the place. What you're REALLY doing with the shims, is shimming the housing to match the hard parts.

Backlash should be .005" - .008" with all new parts. .008" - .011" is about good for all used stuff. Check what your existing setup has now, and see if the other carrier is the same after the swap; if so, then if it's good now, it'll be good afterwards. Slightly too much is better than too little. Gears "grow" when they get hot, and the backlash goes away; and a little bit of noise when they're cold is not as bad as the 2 gears trying to occupy the same volume when they're hot.