Rear axle questions

[Conaway2]

Reassembling the rear axle this afternoon, and have a couple of questions. I‘Ve replaced both carrier bearings and races, but am re-using the pinion bearings and race. Pinion and ring gears are the original ones - they show some wear, but overall look pretty good. Wear pattern on the ring gear teeth is right in the center of the tooth, per the article by Jack Richard in Vol 6 of the ‘how to restore your Model A’ series by MAFCA.

I have 0.026” in gaskets on the passenger side, and 0.010” on the driver side, which gives a carrier bearing pre-load of about 5 lbs using the twine and fish scale measurement method described in the article. Pinion bearings are preloaded to about 10-12 inch-lbs, as measured with a small torque wrench.

How much backlash should I expect with used pinion and ring gears ? I’ve read that it should be 0.010” to 0.020”, but I suspect this axle has more backlash than that. I’ll have access to a dial indicator tomorrow, so will be able to get a measurement.

I added a 0.010” shim behind the driver side carrier bearing to allow me to use more gasket thickness, so the only remaining adjustment I can make is to have 0.030” of gaskets on the passenger side and 0.006” on the driver side.

Realistically, can I adjust backlash on used gears to the 0.010” to 0.020” range ??

Thanks - Jim