Ring gear only...?

[coach]

Hey guys,
I grabbed another 8.5 housing a few weeks ago. It was empty except for a pinion gear. It's a 3.42 gear. Can I find another ring gear and use it, or once gears are a matched set, or used, they cant be mismatched? I don't recall ever coming across this situation before, nor hearing about it.

Thanks
Coach

 

[Chuck Leeper]

Short answer...NO!
U will likely end up w/ a "howler"..Or at the very least, a "whiner".
Gear sets are lapped in on a "Gleason" type machine, and kept as a set.
Once the gears are in service, they take on a particular wear pattern, given the set up dimensions of toe/heel contact patch, pinion depth, etc..

 

[coach]

I had a feeling. Thank you