Episode two!
Have now had another look at the contact pattern. I felt there should be room to improve.
Getting box out is quick ( about an hour ).
This time i didnt strip the bevel box, but simply removed the eight screws holding in the crown gear complete with sprocket. Again quite quick.
Checked the contact pattern as is and whilst it looked OK i felt need to improve.
After checking the "ideal" patterns from the interweb decided to try moving pinion further in towards the gear.
On my box there is a gasket between the pinion arrangement and the box, so i removed this to allow the pinion to sit further in.
Re did the contact pattern and it was an improvement. Pattern was more central and spread over most of the tooth surface.
Backlash " felt" to be a fraction less than before, but still obvious.
Reassembled and tightened and put back into car. This is more difficult than removal due to the position of the two front bolts. The nuts are hard to spanner . Damn near impossible to do it single handed.
Anyways, first tentative run was promising indeed, the noise at 30 to 40 mph was all but gone. All other speeds were similarily quieter too.
Before risking it on the motorway, went round all the nuts and screws and retightened, checked for any oil seepage without the gasket and made sure belt wasnt trying to escape from sprockets.
Tonight, the missus and i ventured out for a quick blast around the neighbourhood and onto the motorway.
In short, Everything was better than the last setup. Absolutely no screaming and an order of magnitude quieter at urban speeds. Yeh !
Her indoors is happy. Yeh !
Should the weather be kind this weekend then will go to Ardmore airport to the Armistice air show. This will allow me to get a few km under the belt and see how it all settles in.
Fingers crossed all remains stable for a good while. But then what will i do ??
