There is a sharp line at the root of the teeth, which means that you have the pinion a little too deep. I would remove about .003 to .005 from the pinion shim and give it another shot.

 

Thanks Freddie, will do. I'll post pics again tomorrow.

 

Hey Guys, I was badly mistaken yesterday. My pinion shim was .043! The first 2 photos today are .034 shim and .011 backlash. The last 2 photos are .031 shim and .010 backlash. I'm thinking the pattern looks better with the .034 shim and may need to be a tiny bit deeper. Coast side still favors the toe. Preload is 25 in/lb with a solid pinion spacer. What y'all think?

 

.034 looks pretty good. You can try something around .036 or .037, but I think you will probably come back to this.

 

Ok, here's what I did today: .036 pinion shim and .012 backlash. I think it looks maybe a little better than the .034 shim in the first 2 pics from yesterday, whatcha think?

 

I like .034 more. You only marked one tooth when you had .034 in it, so that is the only one I can look at, but it looks more evenly covered over the surface of the tooth.

 

Little shot of red brakleen and compressed air will clear the marking compound and give you a better read. I know where you're at man, done this dance too many times. Good luck!

 

After lots of trial and error, this is today's result.
Preload is 19 in/lb, backlash is .008", pinion shim is .032".
This seems as good as I've been able to get, whatcha think?

 

What does it look like when you open up the backlash a little? More backlash will usually move the pattern away from the toe a little bit. Look above at the pictures with .034 shim and .011 backlash and you will see that the pattern is not quite as heavy on the toe as what you have now. If increasing the backlash doesn't improve it then go with this.

 

Thanks Freddie, I'll try this tomorrow.

 

Preload is 19 in/lb, opened up the backlash to .011", pinion shim is still .032".
I think this moved the pattern away from the toe a little. Whatcha think?

 

It might have moved it just a little. I think you could run this without any problems.

 

Thanks Freddie, I'm gonna button it up and call it done.