Carrier Assembly; Helpful hints, tricks and traps

[The Bedford Boys]

Originally Posted by Lynn Eades

DRIVE AXLE
I am assembling my diff at the moment and have spent a while trying to find what thickness the gasket is between the two halves of the housing.
It is very important that the gasket is the correct thickness as it is the medium by which the diff side bearings are pre-loaded.
I hunted through about 8 parts books and manuals and found no sizes (Henry wanted to sell us gaskets)
I looked in the big Australian Workshop manual (M.G. 2 pdr. and 3" Mortar) In there it says they are 0.010"thick, which for you young un-edumakated and otherwise metricated guys, it is 0.25mm (= 0.0098") near enough!

The part number for the gasket is BB-4035 and state side, Best gasket sell them. I made mine.

Bearing cross over;

2.Pinion Cup Ford BB-4616-B = Timken 53375
2.Pinion Cone Ford BB-4621-B = Timken 53176
1.Pinion nose inner BB-4626-D = SKF 325105... No Timken yet (bought from Macs Auto)
1.Nose end Brg. BB-4625-AZ Timken ...No number yet (This is the Nth American style. The Brit one is different)
2.Side bearing Cup BB-4222 = Timken 3920 (Bower uses Timken numbers)
2.Side bearing ConeBB-4221-B =Timken 3982

We do timken diffs a bit differently. As each diff can and is different in machining from factory, we assemble the diff vertically, trying different thickness gaskets until the crownwheel gives good feel when spun with fingers through the pinion bearing hole. This gives good results. I've seen diffs with quite thick gaskets, and some with no gasket at all! This is the method described to me by a number of Ford truck enthusiasts who've done quite a few diffs. Just my 5c.