From: Dennis Gibson
Date: 03 Dec 2002
Time: 07:37:38
Remote Name: 150.203.2.85
The advice that I have been given so far is that a tooth replacement repair is not practical for several resons: Welding induces stresses that will ultimately crack, regrinding the correct profile costs about the same as a new CW & Pinion.
If the tooth is chipped rather than missing, the best repair is to grind away any sharp bits to minimise stress fractures then forget about it. Often chipping occurs at the back (large diameter end) of the pinion usually due to poor lubrication and incorrect setup. Correctly set up the load should be nearer to the other end.
With regard to length, this has been debated quite a bit and your numbers are unusually short. One must be careful to specify length from where to where, as some include the nut thread and some don't. I was of the understanding that up to '28 all pinion shafts were the same length of 22 3/4" from end of pinion to end of thread (overall). I think that we need a definitive "rulling" on this, as there were many variations to the diffs on the way!