The Ford Barn

azandy · 05-15-2017, 12:22 PM

There's as much as 1/8 inch of free axial movement in a couple of the small gears in the differential of my 1950 Ford car. Is this normal and if I need to tighten them up how can I do it without disturbing the ring and pinion gear settings?
Thank you,
Andy

56markII · 05-15-2017, 02:50 PM

1/8" play or movement you indicate and would I assume this is grabbing the axle and gently wobbling or twisting it back and forth? Keep in mind you have a number of gears in there such as the side gears with splines that rotate the axle shafts, then you have gears that rotate them and add all of this combined necessary play or backlash between all of these gears, including the tiny amount of play or clearance in the splines on the axle and side gears (you dont want them (the gear backlash) too tight for thermal expansion of all of these gears).
You have the more common style of differential assembly compared to my 1950 Mercury Sport Sedan or my 1956 Continental. They both use the differential that you have to disassemble and reassemble through the rear or the differential housing compared to yours that after you unbolt the bearing retainer on your brake back plate and slide the axles out, you remove the entire carrier assembly through the front of the differential housing. Most likely 1/8 is very normal. Unless you have filings, metallic looking oil, a noisy howling differential, I wouldn't even worry about this and if it makes you feel better, go to one of your other vehicles and lift the wheel and gently shake the tire listening and feeling . One thing you most certainly DON'T want to do is use a mismatched diameter set of tires on ANY differential including all modern cars and trucks because instead of these above mentioned differential gears only normally rotating within the set of differential gears during a turn where one wheel turns faster than the other, a mismatched set of tires will cause these gears to unnecessarily rotate continuously wearing them out! A good example of this would be placing a smaller space saving spare tire on the driving axles of a rear differential car or on the front of a front wheel drive care where they recommend removing a tire from the back and placing it on the front and using the spare on the rear. As for the oil, if it has been in there for a long time, and just looks dirty from normal wear or is discolored from condensation drive the car long enough to warm up and stir up the oil and drain it as fast as possible while hot before things settle out.

rotorwrench · 05-15-2017, 03:08 PM

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I was wondering about where the play existed too. Side gears and spider gears will have some backlash normally. If this is 1/8" play between one of the side gears and one of the spider gears then that would be way out there. There are supposed to be a cup washer on each spider gear and a side washer on each side gear. If they are missing then there would be a lot of play.

05-15-2017, 12:22 PM	#1
azandy Member Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Glendale, Arizona Posts: 31	Rear end side and pinion gears in a 1950 Ford car There's as much as 1/8 inch of free axial movement in a couple of the small gears in the differential of my 1950 Ford car. Is this normal and if I need to tighten them up how can I do it without disturbing the ring and pinion gear settings? Thank you, Andy

05-15-2017, 02:50 PM	#2
56markII Member Join Date: Nov 2016 Location: Sask. Canada Posts: 64	Re: Rear end side and pinion gears in a 1950 Ford car 1/8" play or movement you indicate and would I assume this is grabbing the axle and gently wobbling or twisting it back and forth? Keep in mind you have a number of gears in there such as the side gears with splines that rotate the axle shafts, then you have gears that rotate them and add all of this combined necessary play or backlash between all of these gears, including the tiny amount of play or clearance in the splines on the axle and side gears (you dont want them (the gear backlash) too tight for thermal expansion of all of these gears). You have the more common style of differential assembly compared to my 1950 Mercury Sport Sedan or my 1956 Continental. They both use the differential that you have to disassemble and reassemble through the rear or the differential housing compared to yours that after you unbolt the bearing retainer on your brake back plate and slide the axles out, you remove the entire carrier assembly through the front of the differential housing. Most likely 1/8 is very normal. Unless you have filings, metallic looking oil, a noisy howling differential, I wouldn't even worry about this and if it makes you feel better, go to one of your other vehicles and lift the wheel and gently shake the tire listening and feeling . One thing you most certainly DON'T want to do is use a mismatched diameter set of tires on ANY differential including all modern cars and trucks because instead of these above mentioned differential gears only normally rotating within the set of differential gears during a turn where one wheel turns faster than the other, a mismatched set of tires will cause these gears to unnecessarily rotate continuously wearing them out! A good example of this would be placing a smaller space saving spare tire on the driving axles of a rear differential car or on the front of a front wheel drive care where they recommend removing a tire from the back and placing it on the front and using the spare on the rear. As for the oil, if it has been in there for a long time, and just looks dirty from normal wear or is discolored from condensation drive the car long enough to warm up and stir up the oil and drain it as fast as possible while hot before things settle out. Last edited by 56markII; 05-15-2017 at 02:58 PM.

05-15-2017, 03:08 PM	#3
rotorwrench Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: San Antonio, Texas Posts: 16,431	Re: Rear end side and pinion gears in a 1950 Ford car Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements) I was wondering about where the play existed too. Side gears and spider gears will have some backlash normally. If this is 1/8" play between one of the side gears and one of the spider gears then that would be way out there. There are supposed to be a cup washer on each spider gear and a side washer on each side gear. If they are missing then there would be a lot of play.