Went to rebuild trac-loc and pinion shaft hits ring gear: 4.56's

crazypete

crazypete

All my crevices are greased.
Oct 22, 2004
930
4
18
Arlington, MA
#1
Hey folks, has anyone seen this before?

I went to do a trac-loc rebuild on my 1 wheel peeler and had the odoriforous experience of having the axle cover off and went to punch the crosspin out of the differential and thunk. It hits the 4.56 ring gear. The ring is too tall! I honestly have no idea how they got it back together in the first place but there is no way on this earth that the pinion shaft is coming out past those gears. I have a tracloc and a rear disc brake kit to install.

Do I grind off some of a ring gear tooth or grind off some of the pinion shaft or what else can be done? I SMACKED it with a deadblow mallet and it came halfway out but this is only cause it has a small flat part. It slid out as far as it can go but it wont go any further since it becomes round again and it wont help me to have it sticking into the back of the case.

Hey is gear oil supposed to be like thick cold molasses? I popped the cover off and was surprised that the fluid slowly rolled out instead of spilling out. Maybe skipping the friction modifier will put some friction back into those old tracloc clutches.
 

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#3
Interesting...

when I took the cover off 1 1/2 yrs ago to take the stock 3.08's out, the fluid looked fluid and spilled out like engine oil. Maybe they had something else in there. I'm looking at some mobil1 75w-90 and it looks exactly like oil, not the honey/tar that just oozed out of there

For laughs, I wonder how ATF would fare in there, it seems to be the universal fluid for everything else. My old saab used to take synthetic 10w-30 for its transaxle lubricant.
 
#5
Interesting. That maple syrup was probably why the tracloc was not working.

I just filled it with that mobil1 75-90 with no friction modifer and went for a drive. No noise or chattering and lo and behold, I gunned it from a light and heard a chirp from the driver's side! Trac-loc lives!

I still need to take it all apart to get the brake kit in though. Would grinding off a mm or so from 1 tooth be as disasterous as I think it is? I really dont know how them guys got it back together...
 
#6
did you try getting the shaft out from both sides? maybe they ground the other side. i just don't understand how the hell they got it all together if you can't even get the shaft out. i ran into this problem installing my 4.30's and had to grind down a tooth.
 
#7
I tried punching it out from both directions and no good. The back direction away from the bolt retainer was an absolute no go. Punching it torward the retainer bolt side got it to slide till the end was hanging over the far side of the gear. It even felt loose and could be rotated about 45 degrees but it wouldnt go any further. I stuck a screwdriver through the hole and crowbarred. I twisted and crowbarred. I feel if I rotated it around and whaled it with a mallet, it would come out and be wedged into the back of the case, which doesnt particularly help me.

ok, so you can grind down a tooth without destroying everything. No noise or anything? Would a dremel be able to grind it? (thats some hard metal)
 
#8
Just curious how your gonna remove the results of your grinding and keep all those minute metal particles from ending up in bearings? It's kinda tough to do a really good job flushing all that with the housing in the car - I'm assuming your working under the car.
 
#9
stuff rags in there where you're grinding. while grinding, hold a rag over it and do your best at letting nothing get to the bearings. you won't need to gring off all that much if you can already get the shaft halfway out.
 
#10
If you push the pin through 'til it hits the ring gear, is there enough room on the opposite side to get the c-clips out? I wouldn't go grinding on anything just yet. There wasn't any grinding necessary to put it in there. I've never worked 4.56's but I'm thinking they may have put the pin in, then bolted the ring gear on...if that's possible.
 
#11
SlowGT said:
If you push the pin through 'til it hits the ring gear, is there enough room on the opposite side to get the c-clips out? I wouldn't go grinding on anything just yet. There wasn't any grinding necessary to put it in there. I've never worked 4.56's but I'm thinking they may have put the pin in, then bolted the ring gear on...if that's possible.
Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking. If you can get the pin out enough to push the axles in and get the c-clips out, you can at least get the caps off and pull the differential out.

I've never had a problem getting the pin out, but I've also never used anything larger than a 3.55 gear. If you only have to grind a minute amount off a tooth to get the pin out it will probably be ok, just be sure that you smooth/deburr any edges. As mentioned before, metal shavings in bearings aren't good so you should pop the assembly out before grinding on anything. Or you can remove the ring gear once it's out.
 
#12
the lower the gear, the thicker the ring gear. i ran into problems with my 4.30', especially because i run a 31 spline T-Lock which has a thicker shaft.

i would try what these guys said first, definatly easiest. push the shaft out as far as you can, maybe it's enough to push the axles in enough to get the C-clips out. then you're set. you'll just have to leave the shaft in there and you'll have to take the ring gear off first before you rebuild the T-Lock.

check this article out towards the bottom. it shows that it doesn't hurt to slightly grind a tooth.
http://www.randysringandpinion.com/content/technicalhelp/default.asp?pid=126
 
#14
I helped a ford tech put the 4.56s in my truck 8.8 and we ground down the gear to get the shaft in. No harm done. Teeth shouldnt be in contact with that part of the gear anyway.
 
#15
it should have a notched center pin in it.what you'll have to do is turn the pin to the notched side and release the c-clip and pull the axle and do the same for the other side.then take the carrier completely out.then you take the ring gear off and pull the pin out.reassembly is of course the opposite.by the way anybody that grinds a ring or pinion is not a tech but a hack.if you don't have the right parts or tools,then don't do the job.i learned this at a young age.by the way are you sure it's 4.56s and not something even numerically higher like 4.88s or more?
 
#16
Hey tell this to the guy he works at a ford dealership as a professional technician. Its tru though you grind the inside of the tooth a tiny bit which should not contact the pinion at all.
 
#17
i worked at a chrysler dealership for 5 years and i even worked at a ford dealership for a while.just because you work somewhere doesn't make you a professional.i took this shotcut of gear grinding about 10 years ago on a guys 7.5 in a 79 mustang.we were putting 4.10s in and required an offset pin.he didn't want to spend the money so we lightly grinded the gears,after a few thousand miles it started causing problems,he started blaming me,he neglected to tell people he was too cheap to buy the pin.ever since then i refuse to shorcut stuff on other peoples cars.i'll do my own stuff until i can get the right part,but thats my stuff,my responsibility.
 
#19
I would still have to smooth a millimeter off a tooth to get the pin out as the pin pushed up as far as it can be still has the crosspin completely between the axle shafts. They must have assembled the carrier before....but how could it have been done since the axles/c-clips cant be put in until it is inside the case? It does look like one side was flattened ojn the crosspin. I think it is easier to get it in than take it out.

I can notch the pin myself once it is out. See how the stock pin has two flat parts? I can get it until the flat part is sitting on top of the ring gear but then it hits the inner part of the tooth. I am _really_ afraid of punching it any further since if it gets wedged back there and I cant turn the carrier, I am royally screwed.

By the way, could the car move without the crosspin in place? I need to roll it out of the "garage" to remove the axles (man, I cant even open the doors in there) and swap in the discs and then drive it under power back in so I dont freeze to death.
 
#20
I just installed a 4.56 in an 8.8 and I bought the specially notched cross pin from Holcomb Motorsports as a precaution. I did this on my 7.5 in axles years ago and had to have a notched cross pin for the 4.10.

When I called to order it, they said you could just grind the regular one, but I ordered one anyway.

After installing it, I had no problem, and it looks like just about an inch of flat on the ends, toward the ring gear. I believe I actually installed the original once or twice with no problem while trying to line up the spiders also. It may vary by the brand of gear you have.

And yes, this stuff does have an odor issue associated with it. And I spent two months working on this.....
 
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