Dana 60 gear issues

[Jim Hawkins]

I have been wearing out gears in my 67 Camaro SS/I and looking for some advice. With the 327 the car weighs 3140 and I would think they would last longer. When I ran this car with a auto. in SS/CS years ago they would last for years. That was with a 6.50 ratio now been running 5.86. And of course now with a stick. I had Mark Williams do the set up last time and at about 50 runs they are done. What happens is the backlash gets tight in a few spots on the ring gear. The wear pattern looks good and no cracks. I checked them before the last race at Kearney and all was good. Made 5 runs there spinning hard each run and now the same problem. I could see if the clutch was too tight and dead hooking but that is not the case. MW suggest at least .010 backlash but I am thinking of tightening that up. Maybe a problem with the gears? I bought these gears and a couple years ago when Richmond stopped making them. Is 50 runs all I can expect with this combo?