I was curious what pinion depth gauges everyone has. What are there opinions, which one should I get?

I wouldnt get any of them. If your setting up a rear end pinion the pinion depth will be set by looking at the gear pattern, not by what the depth gage says.

If you need a starting point with pinion depth, then I would just install the original pinion shims and go from there.

If you post this in the "transmission" section you will get some more responses that will probably agree with me. There are a couple of professional rearend builders that dont use the gage at all.

If you use the gage your going to have to check (and probably correct) the depth by looking at the pattern anyway.

Stroked,
I am going to respectfully disagree with Clark. Several years ago, I decided to start doing a few rear end setups. I called the guys at Richmond Gear and asked them what they thought I should do in order to avoid any troubles. They suggested the T&D pinion depth tool and said that if you do it absolutely by the numbers, you will not have problems. Well, so far, I have done about 20 rears. Everything from 12 bolts for the street to an all out Mark Williams 9" Ford for a Super Gas car. I used the pinion depth gauge on each one and got the depth exactly where it was supposed to be. The pattern on every one turned out perfect and none of the rears have had any problems. No noise, no excessive wear etc. All the gears were Richmond.
I will have to say this ... if all you are doing is one rear for yourself, you probably cannot justify the cost of the T&D tool. Pay someone to do it and keep on driving. If you plan on doing a bunch of them ... then buy the tool.
Just my opinion,

I just did my own gears also and didn't use a guage. I probably would have had I had acess to one. I never did price one out either. It was a good learning experience though, but I was sort of lucky, my neighbor has a small hydraulic press that I was able to use, 4 times lol. All in all it wasn't too bad of a job but you need to be patient and take your time. Drove my baby tonight and didn't hear anything whining in the back, thank god

Over the last 30 years, my dad has built a few thousand rears. Last year he broke down a ordered a gauge from Mark Williams and is glad he did. If you are going to build one or two rear ends, the the gear pattern route will work fine and be cheaper but if you build a lot it will speed up the job.

Darn,
BillK is one of those folks that you hope never disagrees with you. I say this because I have read almost all of his posts and I dont remember anyone catching him in an error. He is usually correct.

The depth gages I'm familiar with I would consider less than precise and as such they required the user to verify the setup with marking compound. It stands to reason that if the gage tool where accurate enough, and if the manufacturer of the gear set provided an accurate depth setting, then the tool would be worth it.

But I bet a reliable depth tool of this caliber isnt going to be cheap.

Where do you get the T&D pinion depth guage? All I have ever seen was the Proform one. Just to add this, both of the rear end people I know don't even have one. It seems like to them if its off, within a few minutes they can have it shimed correct. Mark

Not to sound redundant, but . . . a pinion depth gauge will pay for itself many times over, if you are going to be setting up a lot of rear ends and you are getting paid for your work. If you are just going to set up some gears for yourself, then the old trial and reset method will work, but is time consuming and not nearly as accurate.
The gear pattern will still need to be checked whether or not a depth gauge is used. The gear pattern is influenced by the differential side clearance, as well as pinion depth.
Personally I use a depth gauge made by Starrett, which was marketed by Perfection American/Zoom gears several years ago.

T&D (http://tdmach.com/page18-19.shtml)

I've done a couple without a guage, but they were measured precisely. I use either a depth micrometer and/or a dial caliper with a known straight piece of 1/2" square key stock long enough to go across the cap saddles. Think about it, if you pull the bearing caps off, the surface in the housing they bolt up to is exactly on the axle centerline. Now take and measure your key stock that will go across it and lay flat, and add that measurement to whatever you measure with your depth micrometer, or dial caliper to come up with your pinion depth. It's way easier with the depth mic to square up. Crude, some may say, but effective. Faster than bolting everything back up, too. I haven't gone wrong with it yet. The idea came to me one day, didn't see it anywhere else. ;)

I also have a T&D and use it regularly with much success on all but OEM gears. The only issues I have ever had is if the pinion gear center line is improperly machined in the housing relative to the carrier.

Originally posted by Cameano:
I've done a couple without a guage, but they were measured precisely. I use either a depth micrometer and/or a dial caliper with a known straight piece of 1/2" square key stock long enough to go across the cap saddles. Think about it, if you pull the bearing caps off, the surface in the housing they bolt up to is exactly on the axle centerline. Now take and measure your key stock that will go across it and lay flat, and add that measurement to whatever you measure with your depth micrometer, or dial caliper to come up with your pinion depth. It's way easier with the depth mic to square up. Crude, some may say, but effective. Faster than bolting everything back up, too. I haven't gone wrong with it yet. The idea came to me one day, didn't see it anywhere else. ;) FWIW, I would never take that axle centerline for granted, ever!

Sorry, double post! graemlins/clonk.gif

Hmm, not that I do, but how did you come to the conclusion that it wasn't precise (at the carrier)? I can see it being off if measuring axle straightness out to the housing ends, but the carriers are line bored when new, you'd think it would come out centered, or you would have issues with bearings not going into one side or the other, since theoretically you'd have more than 180 degrees of housing or cap if it's off. I'm not saying that you haven't seen it this way, I'm just saying I'd hope quality control in the manufactuing process could keep up on this. Imagine if an engine was line bored off center. :eek: I've just never heard of this being an issue.