What did I do wrong?

1969383S said
Thanks for the insight you win the "chicken dinner".

I remember when moving from GA to FL I had to put the original 489/3.23 back in. When I got to FL I could not find the rub spool cause the roll pin was always loose. Frustrated I put the 4.56 ring gear on the cone center from the 489. Bet if I choose a 3.73 or higher to put in now I would have never even had this issue! What are your thoughts on shaving the 3.55 pinion? It seems to contact or almost contact right on the edge where it is chamfered furthest from the ring gear. The power lock is long gone and a new one is $600 pricey!!! Not really interested in a used one that I have no way of trusting. The cone came out of my 28k car and maybe has 35k of use now so I trust it and it has always been tight!

as stated in my previous post ( pg1 ) this case had a 4.86 gear with the suregrip installed originally . when he went to the new off brand 3.55 gear you could not turn the pinion at all ,, so I simply increased the clearance by shaving down the pinion head -- you can do this with a angle grinder with a 80 or 100 grit disc on it ,,--take the pinion out of the case ,,measure the thickness of the pinion head for reference ,,, tape up the bearing to keep grit out ,, drill a hole in a piece of 2x4 to accept the pinion shaft and with the pinion vertical slowly and carefully grind the end of the pinion head --- grind some then take a measurement to see how much you have removed --.020 to .030 thou is plenty -- has no adverse effects on the gear