My 72 Comet Build.....

Ahh, I wasn't even thinking about that being there..... That thing has been there since 2001 I think.....

 

Set up the 3.25 Gleason gear set I have this morning and it has the same problem as the 3.10 had..... I went by work yesterday and grabbed a Richmond 3.50 gear I removed from a customers car a little over a year ago that I know made no noise at all, and had a perfect wear pattern..... I know this is too much gear but I set it up just to see if it was the other gears or something in my other components(whish are all new by the way)..... The 3.50 had a good pattern and did not make the noise or have the bad feel the other gear had..... So I am going to get a new gear this week so I can get the rear back together..... Everything is all cleaned up and ready to go back together.....

I did get the stone guard, grille and headlight trim rings installed..... Also got the steering wheel bolted down and the button assembly on it.....

Here is the front end and then 1 of the steering wheel.....

 

if your pinion depth is off by over .010 you will feel that clicking but you would also see a hard line pattern on the gears. that is very weird that 2 separate gear sets did the same thing. i have seen bad pinion bearings cause similar type of feel. ive seen their be some sort of distortion or riser under the bearing race cause it to distort and cause a high spot that will create problems.
did you use the same pinion bearings and support on both gears?

 

Everything was the same with all 3 gears, all components are new(well maybe a couple miles on them now)...... It's a Strange radial rid case, Strange aluminum street daytona pinion support, Strange Timken bearings and a Detroit Tru-Trac unit..... The 3.25 Gleason I even tried moving the pinion depth .o1 both ways, when I moved it out it got worse and when I moved it in it got a little better but the pattern looked like sh!t..... The used Richmond 3.50 that I know is good felt smooth and the pattern look exactly like the wear pattern..... I know it's odd, and I have set up a lot of gear sets and never had this problem before.....

 

definitely a weird problem. while i dont think this is your problem, i have found that the aluminum pinion supports that are copys of the steel ones will make a gear noise due to the expansion. i dont quiet understand it but its happened on several builds through the years. the heavy duty aluminum supports like the toms one, dont make the noise.

 

This pinion support is a Strange street aluminum, it is much heavier then the race style ones I have used in the past.....

I ordered a Richmond 3.25 this morning along with some other stuff I need.....

 

Well I am at a complete loos on this rear end..... I checked everything over, set up a new Richmond 3.25 gear set..... I was being overly anal with the pattern with the noise problems I have been getting..... Everything looked and felt perfect, I even checked the preloads and didn't just go by feel like I have always done..... Put the rear all back together and it still made the same noise, now it didn't make it until about 30mph and not at idle as before..... It even makes the noise with the axles out..... I rechecked everything again, I even checked the pinion angles and u-joints even though they are new..... I disassembled the 3rd member completely and checked every bearing and race, I can find nothing wrong..... I have set up plenty of rear ends and never had anything like this before..... The only thing I can think of at this point is something is not machined correctly in the carrier, maybe the relationship between the pinion and ring gears(bad angle or something)..... Who knows, all I know at this point is I am tired of spending money on this rear end not to mention over working on it.....

 

Did you rotate the ring gear and check lash at multiple points? Did you check runout on the ring gear face of the differential

 

is it possible its in the transmission?
what is the frequency of the clicking noise? faster than one drive shaft revolution per click?

 

I checked backlash every half turn of the pinion yoke, way more then I usually do(it was with in .001)..... I usually check in 3 or 4 places.....

This is the original 16000 mile engine and trans that did not make a noise or vibration before..... Besides I ran it on the jack with no axles in it, it is definitely coming from center section area..... The frequency of the noise is hard to tell exactly, but I would say definately far more then one click per revolution of the shaft..... With the new gear it would not start making noise until almost 30 mph on the speedo, with the previous gear it would make a louder noise at idle while jacked up.....

 

I think I'd try a different center section if you have one handy just to rule out anything else.

 

i would leaning towards a bad bearing or a bearing not sitting square in its race. the problem is that i know you should be able to feel it so i really dont have any idea. i know you do top notch work with top notch parts so when the results are not ideal its a very frustrating situation. at this point i would try a different pinion support and pinion bearings.

 

Maybe an inner race split when pressing it on causing a hairline crack you cannot see.

 

Oh well, what ya gonna do..... I am questioning a couple of the reared parts..... Now I just want it fixed, so today I just ordered a bunch of new rear end parts, pretty much everything but the gears, tru-trac and axles..... It's gonns get fixed one way or another.....

 

I got the bulk of the new rear end parts in this week..... Just waiting on spring perches from Calvert racing, and I sent my gear set out to get Rem finishing polished.....

I now have a Moser FAB9 Housing(I really wanted one of these before but I had the stock housing already), Strange Large Bearing Housing ends, Calvert Racing Spring Perches, New 3" u-bolts, Strange Nodular Iron third member, Ford Racing Nodular Daytona pinion support, Strange Chrome Moly 1350 series pinion yoke and a new Richmond Install kit( all Timken Bearings )..... I am still using the same Detroit Tru-Trac unit(it was new when the rear was first assembled, now has about 3 miles on it) and of course the Richmond 3.25 gear I just purchase a week ago(it is currently out getting REM polished).....

I have been checking everything as much as I can..... I did find the face on the current rear end housing that the third member bolts to is atleast .030 from being parallel(is this causing any distortion to the third member when bolted together?????)..... I checked it with a stock third member, the Strange radial rib carrier I was using and the new Strange Nodular Iron one I just bought..... When I put the all 3 third members on the new Moser housing they sit dead flat..... I also put the new bearing on the Tru-Trac unit and put it in the new nodular third member so I could check the ring gear mounting flange for run out, it has less then .001 run out, I se no problem with that.....

I put my alignment jig in the new Moser housing to see how straight the tubes are, they are damn near perfect...... So I cut the housing to length in preparation for the new housing ends to be installed..... I need to get the perches and get them installed before I put the new ends on.....

Here is most of the rear end parts.....




Here is the old housing and the new one in front after cutting to length.....