Re: [A/S] More on towing

["Dr. Gerald N. Johnson, electrical engineer" <geraldj@xxxxxxxx>]

Jim, a short straight spur gear would run in the helical drive gear. I
wasn't able to find a Ford sensor with different pulse rate per turn,
but I didn't look very hard.

High ratio gears are hard to get perfectly quiet. My dad bought a 1954
Ford with 4.11 gears new and they were always a little detectable. The
gears in my truck are a bit louder than those were but are still
improving. The shop showed me the gear mesh when they changed the oil
and it was picture book perfect. The shop is willing to try another set
of gears to see if they will quieten faster. With the noise being
prominent a the aluminum drive shaft's resonance (where it rings like a
bell when tapped with hammer handle) I think the gears are doing fine
and I need to dampen the drive shaft. I did with some sound dampening
tape but it didn't stay stuck long. The racket when it partly peeled was
loud. Some 4" wide tape with 1/16" goo and heavy aluminum foil on the
outside was what I used. But I've had the roll for 25 years and it
doesn't stick like it did when new. Some day I'll jack the back axle up
and spin the drive shaft while I spray rubber undercoating on it. But
not until spring.

One thing this shop learned, is that its important to drive gently for a
few hundred or a thousand miles to break in the gears before dragging or
pulling a heavy load, else gear life is drastically shortened.

Gerald J.