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While I'm still messing with my sleepy Packard I happened to be under it and was messing with the drive shaft and found there is about a 1/4 inch to 3/8 of an inch of play when turning the drive shaft before you feel it hit the ring gear. Were they really that sloppy? This car has around 47k miles and I can see that the rear end was leaking due to the amount of gunk on the bottom of it. I'm hoping that the gears aren't trashed but if they are where would be a good place to get another ring and pinion?

That's way to much play. Typical backlash between a pinion and ring wear is around .006 to .010".

Ebay is one place to check for a replacement.

You may want to take the diff. cover off to check to make sure the ring gear carrier bearings are not bad, before buying another gear set.

This would also give you a chance to visually inspect both the pinion and ring gear, before purchasing another gear set.

The pinion adjustment could also be way off, resulting in excessive backlash.

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  Packard Ring and Pinion.jpg (46.25 KB)

First of all what car do you even have?

About .006 is typical on many. 1/4" is insane. I would remove the diff and do a thorough inspection. Who knows what is wrong with it.

As long as all the components are in good condition, you can throw it back together following the service manual. 47k is really not much. I replaced the carrier bearings in my Clipper at 93k.