Chipped Ring Gear Repair?

[Kevin Doe]

I purchased an 03 IRS for a project car I'm working on. I was planning on trying it out with the factory 3.55 gears that come in the diff. I was kinda leaning toward swapping to a 3.73, but figured I'd at least try out the 3.55 just to see how I liked it first.

I was in the process of swapping the rear covers from the cobra cover to an 05 Explorer cover, as it will work better with how I plan on mounting it. That and it avoids the weakpoint of the cobra cover. The explorer cover seems much stronger.

I discovered a chipped tooth on the outside of the ring gear. I looked thoroughly at the rest of every tooth in the thing, and its hte only one with a chip. Can this chip be blended out with a dremmel with a fine sanding wheel? I've done this before on a tranny gear with success, but wanted to see what you guys thought. Smoothing it out should remove any stress concentrations from the rough corners.

Thanks for the help.
Kevin

Here is the explorer cover if you're interested in how it looks, and also the chipped gear tooth.

Smooth it out, or just go with the 3.73s like I was thinking about doing down the road?

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l55/Kevin_Doe/RX-7/ExplorerDiffCover.jpg

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l55/Kevin_Doe/RX-7/ChippedRingGeartooth.jpg

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l55/Kevin_Doe/RX-7/Chipzoomed.jpg

[Kevin Doe]

Well here is what I did. I went ahead and smoothed it out. I used a dremel with a sanding drum, then finished it by hand with 180 grit, then 400, then 1000 grit. Tured out pretty good. So go ahead and use it?

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l55/Kevin_Doe/RX-7/Chipblendedzoomed.jpg

[Timido]

Looks like you cleaned it up. Should you run it I guess there is allways the posiblility it could come apart. With that disclaimer out of the way...

I would run it. It doesnt even look like it is in the pattern.

[ibstrokin]

I would use it also,realisticaly, I bet it would have been fine before smoothing it. Cant hurt though.

[Dirtyd0g]

Thats what I was thinking as long as the pattern is set correctly it isn't going to make any difference. If the pattern run out that far you are going to have problems anyway.
Alan

[Kevin Doe]

Thanks guys. Pretty much what I was thinking, but its nice to know others think the same thing too.

[Black Hole]

You may want to look into the Billetflow brace.....

JMO.

[Kevin Doe]

^ The billet flow brace will work at all. The explorer diff cover pictured should be worlds stronger than the cobra diff cover even with the billetflow brace.

[Mavowar]

I'd bet that was like that before it was assembled. Likely got dropped. I'd use it. It isn't in the wear grove. Buy smoothing it out you limited the chances of a stress crack forming. Good Luck

[Shortbus]

It's perfectly fine to use.

[5.0calypso93lx]

^ The billet flow brace will work at all. The explorer diff cover pictured should be worlds stronger than the cobra diff cover even with the billetflow brace.

So why doesn't everyone with an IRS just go to an explorer diff cover then?

[BLWN]

So why doesn't everyone with an IRS just go to an explorer diff cover then?

Because he isn't using the cobra IRS subframe. The explorer cover has a different mounting location than the cobra.

[Kevin Doe]

Yeah, he's right. There would need to be pretty significant rework of a cobra subframe to make it work. But, since I'm starting with an RX-7 subframe, work is required either way. Might as well use the stronger cover. Plus mounting will likely be easier with this cover than the cobra one for my application.

[bobtsgt]

make sure you get some pics up when you can Kev. You do some fantastic work.

[Kevin Doe]

I'm putting up progress threads on CSS, I can post it up here too if you think its appropiate and peopel will enjoy. *Chevy* eek. Even I don't like saying that word. Hahah