# BIG REDS wanna be Nick Cage Build thread. **URL:** \ **Category:** Builds\ **Created:** [February 6, 2010, 7:21pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/big-reds-wanna-be-nick-cage-build-thread/250178 "2010-02-06T19:21:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 1762
**Author:** ![Wayne64SS](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/wayne64ss/32/6365_2.png) [@Wayne64SS](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Wayne64SS)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 10:47am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/big-reds-wanna-be-nick-cage-build-thread/250178/1762 "2011-01-18T10:47:34Z")
> [@Jumped head first into the deep end at the JDM kiddie pool.....](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/jumped-head-first-into-the-deep-end-at-the-jdm-kiddie-pool/38822/4): > > Last Thursday I pulled out the center section out of the rear end to replace my ring and pinon. the car has 3.00:1 gears which were waaaaaay too long or doing anything but 85 on the highway. The car had no low end at all, so I ordered a set of 3:70s to replace them. that should be a good all around gear. So I spent the last 2 days with the help of my buddy jim swapping them. It was my first time doing gears but for the most part just very time consuming pressing on all of the bearings without a press. Then it turned out the tip of the pinon was a hair too big to fit inside the new or the old pinon case bearing so that required us to turn the tip of it down until it slid into the bearing properly. Once that was done it came time to shim everything so that the gears meshed properly and the backlash was in spec. It was all trial and error using the right size pinon shim to get the contact patch right and also trial and error setting the differential side to side just right in order to set the depth of the teeth.each time required us to paint the gears to see where the gears meshed, based on where the paint rubbed off told us what way to shim the pinon or move the diff to the left or the right to get the contact area correct. the contact area to get it just right It took about 5 hours and about 50 attempts but finally we got it perfect. Its not rocket science but definitely a very time consuming and tedious job. Sorry for the crappy cell phone pics > > the start > > all dissembled > > new pinon and ring gear assembled > > pinon tip polished > > all assembled note the painted part of the ring gear showing the contact patch. I hate doing gears. Unless you do them all the time they are far to time consuming. Glad to see you got it done yourself though, only way to go! --- _[View the full topic](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/big-reds-wanna-be-nick-cage-build-thread/250178)._