On Friday I started tearing into the axle and today I did the first test drive. I pulled out the OE 3.23 gear & G80 diff and replaced with Motive 4.10's & an Eaton Truetrac.
It's quite a tedious task and surely tried my patience. I spent the majority of Saturday trying to find the balance of acceptable carrier bearing preload and proper backlash. Once found and I ran my first pattern, I found the pinion depth to be too shallow in the ring gear.
I made two more adjustments to the inner pinion bearing; first another .004" and then another .003". Pinion could've still gone deeper, but I was ready to move on so we'll see how that plays out. It also didn't help that my marking compound went to **** after sitting out over night.
Rather than using a crush sleeve, I went for a solid spacer & shims to set the pinion bearing preload. The kit came with 5x shims and two of them are the same thickness. With a .035" shim pack I had about 40 in/lbs of rotational torque and a .038" shim pack put me at 0 in/lbs. After a little head scratching, I found a shim stack that would put me at .036". After testing my 6th or 7th shim pack, I got my 19 in/lbs of rotational torque, right at the upper limit of what's deemed acceptable.
I've heard no abnormal noises or howling on my break in drives thus far.
First pattern
Final pattern
It's quite a tedious task and surely tried my patience. I spent the majority of Saturday trying to find the balance of acceptable carrier bearing preload and proper backlash. Once found and I ran my first pattern, I found the pinion depth to be too shallow in the ring gear.
I made two more adjustments to the inner pinion bearing; first another .004" and then another .003". Pinion could've still gone deeper, but I was ready to move on so we'll see how that plays out. It also didn't help that my marking compound went to **** after sitting out over night.
Rather than using a crush sleeve, I went for a solid spacer & shims to set the pinion bearing preload. The kit came with 5x shims and two of them are the same thickness. With a .035" shim pack I had about 40 in/lbs of rotational torque and a .038" shim pack put me at 0 in/lbs. After a little head scratching, I found a shim stack that would put me at .036". After testing my 6th or 7th shim pack, I got my 19 in/lbs of rotational torque, right at the upper limit of what's deemed acceptable.
I've heard no abnormal noises or howling on my break in drives thus far.
First pattern
Final pattern