As delivered by Bob....with new bearings
and all items were very clean possibly hot-tanked.


 
Everything is organized on the work-bench.


 
The new ring and pinion is the higher
quality Yukon from Randys but this is 
all there was on the ring for actual
manufacturer ID.


 
Same thing on the pinion......


 
Even though the ring gear was already
on the carrier when received, I removed
it, file the carrier for high spots and
locktited the ring gear bolts to 70 
ft/lbs.

 
When Bob delivered the gear basket, I 
looked at the Aussie install and said 
that "something doesn't quite look right
but I couldn't put my finger on it" but
now I can.......it's missing the .062"
thick sidegear thrust washers!
See the air gap.


 
....so I dis-assembled the Aussie which
was easy and found some thrust washers
in my collection.


 
The open design of the Yota 2-pinion 
case allows for a check for fit....just
making sure that the gap does not 
exceed .020" between the center pin 
and the Aussie ring and we were ok 
here.....I checked both sides but
only 1 shown here.


 
Partially assembled Aussie.....using
my scribe here to point at the thrust 
washer that gets re-used during the 
install. I wonder how many Aussies get
run without them? They must make a 
heck of a popping noise before they 
self-destruct......Don't forget the 
thrust washers :)


 
Putting the Aussie back together 
requires some thumbing to get
everything to stay in place while
inserting the cross-pin but it's
doable.


 
cross-pin in....dowel gets tapped in.


 
Last step is to push the 4 remaining
springs in....I used a small slotted
screwdriver and a pick to work them in.


 


 
Back to the work-bench.....gotta get
the pinion in the 3rd.....and record
all the shim values.


 
For starter values, I chose a pinion
shim of .084". I used the factory
solid collar that Bob supplied and 
had to remove the pinion about 4 times
before I had the pre-load dialed in
to about 10 in/lb. For pinion pre-load,
I ended up with .060".


 
Just showing the cheapie 10 ton Harbor
Freight press I have been using for 10
years now. Almost any shape of metal can
be used for simple press jobs....


 
Skipped a few steps here but basically 
I was getting ready to paint the 1st
pattern and found the backlash varied
about 5 thou....way too much...and the
painted pattern did show too shallow.....
so removed the ring gear (again)
and did this simple check for run-out and 
found the carrier was all warped-out with
about 5 thou run-out. Beware of re-using 
carriers that came out of trucks that had
'burned to the ground'.


 
I dug thru my stash again and found a
spare carrier. I noticed the new 
carrier bearings did not fit that 
tight so I used Loctite "sleeve
retainer" to fix things. Similar 
to hi-strength red Loctite but this
stuff is a cool green and designed 
for non-threaded surfaces.


 
With the pinion shim changed to .094" 
on the 2nd try, it was "pitch perfect"
as the gear engineers might say. 


 
Coast side painted excellent also.


 
So I skipped ahead a little.....got the
pattern right on so just a matter of 
tightening the carrier bearing adjusters
to 75 ft-lb and then torque the bearing
caps(70 ft-lb). Since I was using a 
solid collar, the pinion did not have
to be removed again and it was just a
matter of basically flipping the 3rd/install
the seal and run the nut as tight as
it gets with the electric impact(200 ft/lbs)
....blue Loctite, of course.


 
Another date-code. Done deal.