Interchanging used pinion gears ona 14B FF

[mountainexplorer]

I have a 14 boltFF that has a bad pinion bearing.

Say I had another used pinion gear in another pinion housing... and just stuck that in for the time being.

I already know that mixing different used pinions with different ring gears is a bad idea because of wear patterns and all that... but how detrimental would it be (as far as wear or damage goes) to just run the unpaired pinion with the ring gear just until I get the time to pull the other carrier out and swap out the ring gear too?

(I'd say just a couple days of driving, and less than 200 miles.)

 

[or2play]

From how it was explained to me by my gear/bearing supplier, it'd be like pulling the pin out of a grenade and hopping it didn't go off. Whats stopping you from puting a new bearing on the pinion?

 

[mountainexplorer]

Well, I pulled the pin. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

I pulled the old pinion housing off, and there was the inner pinion bearing in pieces (the one pressed into the main housing). The other one in the pinion housing was shot, and the seal leaking horribly.

I popped another pinion bearing out of another 14 bolt housing I had in the garage and put it in this housing, took the other pinion gear I had and tossed it in.

Who knows how stuff lines up as far as wear, though it "felt" like the gears meshed up well (ring and pinion)... not alot of play but not too tight either. The most play was in the spider gears it seemed.

I know that this is NOT the way to do it, and will most certainly guarantee failure of some sort in the long run, but I just needed a no-cost fix for now so I could drive it to work and back this week. Knowing me, I'll stretch that "week" out longer.

I drove it real quick around a few blocks and up to 35 mph it doesnt howl, and that horrid grinding noise is gone now. /forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif