A planetary gear assembly (30) and method of assembly in an electric camshaft phaser (20) with a split ring gear including a drive-side ring gear portion (32) rotatable by an engine crankshaft and an output-side ring gear portion (34) that can be connected to a camshaft (22). A plurality of rotatable planetary gears (36a, 36b, 36c) can be interposed between the split ring gear and the sun gear (28). The output-side ring gear portion (34) can have a different number of teeth than the drive-side ring gear portion (32) by a value corresponding to a multiple of the number of planetary gears (36a, 36b, 36c). A compliant planetary gear carrier (40, 140) can support the plurality of planetary gears (36a, 36b, 36c) allowing variance of a normally equidistant distance between separate spaced rotational axes of at least two of the planetary gears (36a, 36b, 36c) to selectively compensate for mechanical tolerances of the drive-side ring gear portion (32) and the output-side ring gear portion (34) of the split ring gear.