JamesDowning wrote:bartonmd wrote:We don't power the front gears on the coast side while moving forward??? Seems like we would, given the AWD vehicles in this platform...
Mike
You're saying because the front axle is normally driven backwards by the wheels that they reverse the angle of the gear teeth?
In a way that makes sense, but at the same time, there's very little forces being generated from back-powering your front driveshaft. Which begs the question - why would they reverse the front gears?
I'm not sure if it's because that's the way the, say, D44 and D60 gears were already cut, so to use the same gears, they just power them on the coast side; or if it's so you don't get the gear whine when driving around with the hubs locked (like a lot of people do all winter) or if your axle doesn't come with lockouts (like the Dodge trucks have been since '03 or so)...
fishsticks wrote:Strength. The 7.2" probably doesn't have much extra room in terms of durability. Best to keep forward power on the drive side of the gears.
I suspect this is the reason to cut the gears backwards... that and because there are no rear ends that use the same gears (that I know of?), so they might as well cut them the way they're going to run...
Mike