Going to be setting back lash and preload on my RX7 diff as soon as I can find some TOOLZ. Can't seem to find a nice one at a decent price. Anyone have any tips? Also need a dial indicator. Hook a bro up.

 

The cheapo mics at that range tend to have .001" resolution, which you can get in any caliper, so you're probably not going to find what you need for $20. If you can find a mitutoyo brand mic for a decent price with a zero setting standard, you're gold.

 

I just grabbed some off ebay. They seemed fairly decent. I didn't want to cheap out all the way, since I may use this in the future.

 

That's where I got mine. Starrett 7"-8", dirt cheap. I was surprised how many good name brand measuring tools there were on ebay. Really good prices too.

 

I used a piece of sheet metal instead of a large caliper. I cut the opening to the maximum of the range and made it so it cleared the rest of the diff and just used it as a go-nogo gauge.

Dial indicators are cheap at McMaster and other places. You could probably do the backlash by feel if you had enough experience with setting up diffs.

fwiw, I set everything at the "tight" end of the spec because I expected it would loosen up as it was used.

 

+1. I nabbed a nice one off Ebay for under $50 shipped. On the dial indicator, you really need to determine what you need to use it for and before your use it. You will spend a lot more money (new or used) to get an indicator capable of .0005 accuracy than .001 accuracy (most Chinese indicators will do .001 reasonably well). If you're simple checking runout on parts .001 may work. Keep in mind that when you start trying to reliably measure clearances in the .001 to .005 range, temperature and environment (drafts, your hand warming up the part or indicator) can skew measurements made with expensive instruments.