Think it will work?? 16/17/18 buick ring gear fix

[tblack]

One of the most dreaded and feared sounds is a differential ring gear that has lost a tooth. Of course the best fix is to find another ring gear, whole carrier or the whole rear end to replace your problem..Of course these things are getting tougher to find and having a ring gear made even with the simple straight bevel design of the early buick cars is quite expensive.

I was faced with this problem a number of years ago and I welded and shaped a new tooth by hand. The result after 300 or 400 miles of hard driving (1/2 year) the new tooth failed. I found another rear end so the best fix was the result.

I often wondered if I had 2 bad rings (and I do) And I were to cut the bad section out of one say with 4 teeth on either side and did like with a good section of other other ring then v cut and welded it from the back side if this would work...I think the gears are cast steel and weld pretty easily. Welding from the back side hopefully would not ruin the hardness of any teeth. The single tooth approach probably failed on softness issues or just that the stress was entirely on the welded tooth root.

I'll get there are a lot of bad ring gears out there that could be salvaged if this could be done. thoughts??

[Mark Shaw]

Tom,
I have a ring gear in the carrier assy. from a 29 Master Buick. I will be glad to measure it to see of it is the same....

[tblack]

Mark ...actual I'm not in need of one now just looking to see if anyone had tried cut and paste on a ring gear or if they thought it had any chance of working. Your thoughts of adapting a ring and pinion out of a complete different model car is interesting. It would be great to have info in a cross reference table

[Fred Rawling]

The 1929 Master ring and pinion will not drop into the 1916 to 18 rear end.

Mark what is the ratio on your ring and pinion set?

Fred

fred.rawling@live.com

[Mark Shaw]

Fred,
I don't have the pinion, but the ring has the following numbers: 992540-51-11. The 51 is 51 teeth, so the pinion must have had 11 teeth. That would make it about 4.6 to 1 ratio.

I bought it to save it from the scrapper. If you know anybody who needs it, let me know.

[Dandy Dave]

I've never tried it, but I would think that the welding process would have enough expansion and contraction that it would be very difficult to get it alined perfectly. keep in mind that these gears are sold in sets that have been lapped in. Even a few thousands of an inch variation can make a big difference in a gear set. Never mind the fact that the hardend steel would not weld well without anealing it. Then the gear would have to be re hardened and re lapped in as the heat will distort things [img]<>/smile.gif[/img] Dandy Dave!

[Fred Rawling]

Thanks Mark.
That is not going to work for me. I have a 4:36 rear end in it now (48-11). I am looking for a 48-10 or 53-13 tooth rear end gears.

Fred