99 WS6 rear advice
 

I was getting an awful wine in the rear of my 99 ws6 with auto trans, yes I know this is common, but mine was BAD. Also, had other signs that my rear has seen better days. I ordered everything that I need to redo the whole rear, ripped everything apart, got the rear almost all together and am running into a small issue. I am a little confused about the shim on the pinion. This is the very small one that lays behind the inner pinion bearing. I put everything together and there was more play then I am happy with in the pinion. I will say that the car had 3.23 gears in it and there was a mistake when I got the new parts and they sent me 3.42 gears which leads to my first question, will I run into problems with this? My next question is does the ratio have anything at all to do with that shim on the pinion? I used the shim off of my other pinion thinking that it would be fine, but I am now thinking there is a difference. Is there a specific shim thickness that should be used on each specific ring and pinion?

The pinon depth varies between housings and gear sets. The pinion depth as well as backlash must be set properly any time the gears are changed.

If you were complaining about your old rear end making to much noise then I would not re use anything from that rear end.

Your 3.42's will be fine. Your Speedo will be off a little but thats about it..

You have to set up everything, you cant just go taking it appart, adding new parts and putting it back together