now now, say what you will about Camaro Craft, but I'm not ready to chalk everything up to willful slander & reckless sabotage. Jeff Smith might not be the sharpest tech, but he at least finds experts and attempts to quote them accurately.
Let's clarify things since my comment seem to rub you the wrong way. I said "
it wouldn't surprise me if the writer hated Mopars and wrote that to try and make them look stupid
". I didn't say he DID say something. Just that I thought it was possible he said something because I have seen that before. Since you didn't post a link to the article (until now) I had not read it.
Here's the article with pics & shim chart:
http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles/ccrp_1006_mopar_83_4_inch_rear_axle_assembly/viewall.html
I notice two things their gear expert says:
1. he uses this shim chart, which varies by ratio
I read it and see the chart is not from Smith, but it doesn't make sense that it is spot on since I have torn apart several units with 3:23 gears, 3:55's, 4:11, and 2<76's and found much thicker shims most of the time. Only once did I find a thin (less than .020" under the pinion. Just sayin my personal experience
.
2. he mentions finding shims under the rear cup inside the case, and that you should put them back in the same place you found them.
I have never found shims under the pinion bearing cup but have heard other guys say they did.
Note - my gears have painted numbers, but had NO shims inside the case. Could it be there were two assembly methods, and Jeff Smith just mixed up the translation?
The first pic is an OEM 489 Mopar 3.23 ring gear. Both ring and pinion are paint-penned. The ring gear seems to read "-03" when the teeth face down. The same number is written counter-clockwise on the pinion head. sorry no pinion picture - the marking washed off.
The last two pics are from OEM 489 Mopar 2.76 gears I pulled out. If placed teeth down, it seems to read "-021". The same number is written counter-clockwise on the pinion head.
If read as thousanths of a inch, these both would be in the ball park for a shim pack. Would also make sense if they were serial numbers to keep the two parts mated together.