The Ford Barn

rjhink · 07-15-2016, 01:15 AM

Although I am fairly new to this era car and this is the first rear end I had rebuilt, I'm pretty OCD and just installed a 3.54 gear set in a 1934 Cabriolet. According to the importer, a small percentage of these gearsets had insufficient axle housing clearance -- probably due to Ford motor company's production variations. I had to do two things: (a) get the ring gear ground by about 0.030 of an inch to set the proper ring/pinion gear lash and clear the axle housing ; and (B) install an extra thick gasket on the right side of the banjo to set the carrier bearing resistance. It definitely took a lot of time and a lot of patience. I cut a custom 1/32" paper gasket from a roll of material from the local auto parts store for the right side of the banjo, but after determining the proper left/right total gasket thickness, I left the entire rear end assembled for about a week to make sure that the thick paper gasket did not compress excessively.

The ring gear is hardened part of the way through, so in order to machine down the gear on a lathe, you have to either re-sharpen a carbide bit several times, or use a tool post grinder to make sufficient clearance between the ring gear and the axle housing. Some choose to simply grind out the axle housing, but since mine was in such great, original shape, I chose to machine down the ring gear -- especially since it is replaceable, albeit expensive.

Good luck!

07-15-2016, 01:15 AM	#4
rjhink Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2016 Location: Yorktown, Virginia Posts: 12	Re: Mac's 10 Spine 3.54 for 1932 - 34 Although I am fairly new to this era car and this is the first rear end I had rebuilt, I'm pretty OCD and just installed a 3.54 gear set in a 1934 Cabriolet. According to the importer, a small percentage of these gearsets had insufficient axle housing clearance -- probably due to Ford motor company's production variations. I had to do two things: (a) get the ring gear ground by about 0.030 of an inch to set the proper ring/pinion gear lash and clear the axle housing ; and (B) install an extra thick gasket on the right side of the banjo to set the carrier bearing resistance. It definitely took a lot of time and a lot of patience. I cut a custom 1/32" paper gasket from a roll of material from the local auto parts store for the right side of the banjo, but after determining the proper left/right total gasket thickness, I left the entire rear end assembled for about a week to make sure that the thick paper gasket did not compress excessively. The ring gear is hardened part of the way through, so in order to machine down the gear on a lathe, you have to either re-sharpen a carbide bit several times, or use a tool post grinder to make sufficient clearance between the ring gear and the axle housing. Some choose to simply grind out the axle housing, but since mine was in such great, original shape, I chose to machine down the ring gear -- especially since it is replaceable, albeit expensive. Good luck! Last edited by rjhink; 07-15-2016 at 01:25 AM.