G50/03 re-setting specs ?

[Jim Wolf]

Hello guys,

I bought an G50/03 LSD trans.
The PO has removed the LSD and he put an G-50 open diff.
He told me that he keeps nad put the bearings/spacers (from the LSD)in every side as it was in the new diff.
My concern is is this ok.Can I check to see if the specs are correct ?
I have see a test with some kind of a colored paste ??

Any comment is great help for me...

Thanks,
Jim

[KTL]

While it's probably better to reuse the same carrier bearings and shims from the original diff housing, it's techincally not proper to just do a swap like that and call it good. The factory manuals say to recalculate shims S1 and S2 (carrier bearing shim thicknesses) whenever the diff housing is replaced. Do a search with terms like "LSD setup" of "LSD install" and you'll find some technical information from the factory manuals on this. Long story short you need some specialty tools that are hard to come by in order to set up a diff housing according to the factory procedure.

But I think you can get quite close by using gear patterning paste and proper adjustment/selection of shim thicknesses in order to get a good pattern AND the correct amount of backlash. You've ALWAYS got to make sure you've got the proper amount of backlash. And therein lies the rub- how do you know what is a good pattern? It comes from experience and/or pictures that tell you what's a good pattern. There's also been some information posted here about gear patterns with paste. Another search will reveal them. Let me know if you can't find the topics and i'll track them down.

The guys i've found here to know the tips and technical specs of setting up the diffs are Grady Clay, Matt Monson, Hawk 2109, MBEngineering

Some good information for learning purposes is a video from SmartFlix called Differential Rebuilding by Paul Zank. I found this video to be very informative and it tought me a lot of the basics about differentials and very much about setup. Best $10 i've spent in a LONG time.