I have a 580b and the break side gear broke off a tooth. When I tore it down the drawing showed there is a washer and a thrust washer between the side gear and the ring gear, and all mine had was a broken washer. Most of it must have been worn away. My question is what might be the easiest way to determine the thrust washer thickness with having to buy a bunch of different thicknesses of washers? Or is it trial and error? the thrust washer thickness is what will determine the ring and pinion backlash. The 7,8 are the shims and washer. 11 Ins the left side gear.
Side gear thrust and shims You have about three steps you have to do. You have to get the correct backlash on the pinion spiders with the thrust and shims on each side gear. You have to have the rolling torque at around 4-8 ft lbs., this is done by adding or removing shims from behind the brake housings backing plates. Then you have to adjust the ring/gear and pinion, that is done by moving shims from one side behind the brake backing plate to the other side. It is not a problem when it's gutted and there is no pinion shaft or bull gears in the way on the work table during a trans axle setup, but in the machine is doable also it just takes a little more work. First if you haven't removed the other brake and backing plate do so now, and remove your o ring around that housing and seal. Leave them out until you get it re set up because you will be putting it together and tearing it down several times to get the correct spec's. Keep the shims for each side for your starting point. You will have to torque the backing plates down with the shims each time you make a adjustment for the rolling torque and setting the ring and pinion. I would stick in a new set of side gear bearings and races and take a good look at the axle bearings if you have bumped them out removing your bull gears. It will be a pain getting the correct amount of shims for your side gear, hope your dealer has them in stock and it's not a special order. In that area a .005 shim will increase or decrease the backlash by around .0035. It's stack and check, un stack and check, stack and check. Hope this helps some, ask away.
Sheepfoot I finally got the thing tore apart. Everything looked good on the other side. I tried for hours trying to get the ring gear out of the housing, just shy of grinding off some of the housing. I didn't though. Left it in. I set up the ring gear to side brake pinion backlash by adding in the thrust washer and shim, then put the carrier bearing in and tightned it up just enough to simulate having it out on the bench like the manual shows. I checked the backlash and had .010 backlash. I then started to add shims back and forth, back and forth like you said. Seemed like hundreds of times. I have the ring to the pion backlash at .007. When I finally got this backlash and the bearing preload seems good I do not have any ring gear to side pinion gear backlash any more that I can tell. Is this ok since the instructions showed the backlash loose and on the table. Is there still enough after all of the others are specs are set? If I add more shims between the ring gear and the side pinion it locks it up even worse. Thanks for your help. Shocker
setting it up Well good to hear your working on your machine. So lets back track some, you have slide the rt side gear on the cross shaft and installed your correct amount of thrust bearings and checked the spider gears for backlash on that side and did the same for the rt side and checked the backlash for the spider gears on that side. You installed the backing plates on each side with the same shims as removed on each side. You tightened the backing plates to spec and ended up with shims needing to be adjusted. Your shims behind the backing plates are .005/ .007/ .010 thick I seem to think. Once the rolling spec is correct you have to keep the same amount of shims. Any shim removed form the rt has to go to the lt and any from the lt has to go to the rt. Now if you move a .010 to the rt and a .005 to the left you made a .005 change, a .007 to the rt and a .005 to the left you made a .002, a .010 to the rt and a .007 to the left you made a .003 change. Going back to the side gears it's harder to do with used parts with some wear in the spiders/ bearings/ pins also not being able to set the carrier up on it's end to check the clearance on those gears. You may want to go back and move your shims again to get good clearance on the crown wheel, retighten you backing plates and recheck your rolling spec. Then remove your shims from your backing plate and move them again rt to lt or lt to rt to close the gap up as needed retightening the housings to spec. Then start splitting your shims like said above. It is a pain but it has to be done and you have to come up with the clearance in the spec or be close to it. With a ring and pinion that has been run for a while it's wear pattern is off to start with and will give you a fit but your looking at checking it at several spots and taking the best average also. You can use some machinist blue, or paint to check the contact area also. Hope this helps a little more.
backlash settings I could not get the ring gear out to set the side gear to ring gear backlash. In the attach picture the first step ( insert A) which shows holding the ring gear in your hand with the side gear resting on top and then getting the backlash. There is no other pressure on it but the weight of the side gear. Since I could not get the ring gear out I left it in and I put the thrust washer and the shim washer between the ring gear and the side gear. (When I tore it apart there was very little preload on the bearings. I could even move the ring back and forth and could see the bearings move). I put side gear in with just a slight amount of pressure to kinda simulate it sitting together on the work bench. I had my ring gear to side gear backlash at .010. When I put it together, I had to add new shims ( there were not enough to get the settings) to get the ring gear to main pinion backlash at .007. The problem is that when I tightened up the side carrier to get my ring gear to main pinion backlash and the bearing preload is at 8 ft lbs it tightened up the ring gear to the side gear and took away the backlash that I set in step one. Either I lost it or there is enough friction between the two that I cannot tell my backlash. I am going to double check to see if I still have the side gear backlash.
Got it After loosing up the bearing preload a little and swapping again shim side to side over and over again and again i think I finally got it. Had to set it close to minimum because of the wear, some of the other teeth were close to max. Thanks for all the help. Shocker
Good to hear you were able to shift the shims and get the clearance needed, it should go pretty fast now and you will be working it again soon.