Pinion depth. Help!

How I grenaded the ring and pinion in my front diff, a Dana 25, is a long story but I’ve got new, used, replacements and am have’n troubles figure’n out where to set the pinion.
Scribed onto the top face of the pinion gear is a “+2” at what would be the 12 o’clock position, “0” at the 3 o’clock position and “45” at the 6 o’clock position. WTH is this supposed to be tell’n me?
Anyone have a clue?
I’ve tried the search function but am come’n up empty.

 

the factory manual lists how to read the code and has a nice table to convert old setup to new.

 

Thanks for the response, but let me bounce something off ya.
I’ve continued my search and found a Dana/Spicer Single Speed Axle Service Manual at this link.

http://www2.dana.com/pdf/AXSM-0053.PDF

It seems to indicate that the base pinion depth is 3.5” and that the “+2” indicates that I need to adjust for a pinion depth of 3.502”. That sound right?

 

Yep!!!

 

Thank you.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I though you took the numbers scribed on the old pinion gear, plus the new number and used the chart to figure out the correction.

 

You sure ‘bout this? I broke out the calipers and did some measure’n last night and it doesn’t look as if there’s enough room for a 3.5” pinion depth.
What am I do’n wrong here?
:?

 

The pinion depth of 3.5" looks to be for a dana 70, at least thats what the manual is for. You'll have to find the chart that has the pinion depths for different axles. Vhunter was also right about how you set one up and change to newer gears.

 

Yea, that dawned on my last night after scratch’n my head over the 3.5” deal. Also realized that 3.5” would be just ‘bout the radius of the ring gear, since radius would be ‘bout 3.875.

Any ideas where to find that? I’ve been scouring the internet but hardly anyone even addresses these old axles. It’s like life didn’t begin ‘till the Dana 30.

Problem with that is when I installed the Power Lok it was done by a friend, who I’ve come to realize is a bit of a hack mechanic, pinion shims were shuffled ‘round and I have no idea what the original pinion depth was.
Though I gotta admit, at least he got it to go together without it growl’n so he’s one up on me.

 

according to Ludel's manual, you would subtract .002 from the original shim stack. But if you don't have the original stack you're stuck with pinion depth guage and tooth pattern.

 

I've had good success setting up ring and pinions just going by the pattern. If I was doing yours, I would start with the original pinion depth shims and go from there reading the patterns. Randy's Ring and Pinion has a good write up for setting up ring and pinions. They recommend reading the pattern on used gears off the coast side of the ring gear.
http://www.ring-pinion.com/downloads/yukoninstman.pdf