Ring and Pinion Backlash

[Ken/Alabama]

I’ve rebuilt many early Ford rear axles over the years and have always set the backlash by feel. On the later stuff it’s easy to set up a dial indicator on the ring gear to check backlash but not so on a banjo housing. Just being curious I set up a dial indicator and measured off the pinion splines. Does anyone here use a dial indicator to measure backlash on the early Ford rears? It feels about right and I’m getting.005 measuring from the pinion splines. I put some blueing compound on the teeth and it’s drawing a good pattern across the ring gear teeth. Just curious if anyone here uses a dial indicator and what numbers your looking for at the pinion.