Stupid ring and pinion question

[alec78]

So the stupid question for the day is: Is rust on a tooth of a ring rear make the gear set unusable?

 

[rdn2blazer]

wow, thats wierd that only one tooth is rusty that much and the rest look good. i dont really know, i doubt it but it would bug me personally to know that theres rust in there at all. could be a good excuse to go to lower gears. if you want to.

 

[dyeager535]

that'll wear off in a heartbeat. I say run it.

 

[85mudblazin]

Sure thats rust?? looks like some old caked on oil to me

 

[Bigg R]

If there are no pits in the metal, I say run it!! If you want to feel better about running it, take a piece of Scotchbrite to it and clean with brake cleaner!!!

 

[K5MONSTERCHEV]

Like everyone said, depends how bad it is.

 

[Seventy4Blazer]

clean it and run it.
Grant

 

[Eric M.]

I picked up a set of used gears several years ago. They were cleaned, but had pits from rust. I took them to a shop and to a friend who was a mechanic, and both said not to use them if they had pits.

Eric M.

 

[K5MONSTERCHEV]

I picked up a set of used gears several years ago. They were cleaned, but had pits from rust. I took them to a shop and to a friend who was a mechanic, and both said not to use them if they had pits.

Eric M.

Yep, we replace gearsets if they have rust on them, there no good to run. Like Larry says "thats like wiping before you poop it dont make any sense."

 

[jarheadk5]

When I worked at TransAxle, we re-used rusty gearsets all the time (tranny gears and R&P's). We would disassemble and sandblast the gears, then inspect the tooth faces in the contact area. If the pitting was bad, we'd scrap it, but if there were just minor pits and not many of them, we'd buff the pitted teeth with a 3M Roloc buffing pad to remove any sharp edges and burrs.
This was all heavy truck stuff though...