Dr.Ben Elite Veteran Location: Richmond, VA, USA
| Smooth and with little or no backlash does not assure an accurate mesh. Think of the two gears as forming the 90 degree corner of a picture frame, beveled/mitered corners and all. If one gear is running shallow or deep to the other such that only part of the total tooth area is covered, then the mesh can still feel smooth and will have little backlash, but the mesh is NOT going to hold up over time. As soon as it wears in just a little, the mesh will start to float. Since the tooth to tooth coverage isn't complete, wear is accelerated and quite dramatic.
It's fairly easy to spot when the gear wear I decribe. Under close inspection of the clean gears, you can see the polish marks from running unevenly distributed across the tooth. Inspect your after a gallon or so of running and see what it looks like.
Also, if there is ANY, and I mean ANY, endplay in either the input or output shaft of the box when it's assembled, the mesh will not hold in flight.
Ben Minor |