Flexor delivered to me a nicely cleaned
empty 3rd, new bearings, and a good quality 
set of 571 US GEARS. I chose for my 
starter pinion shim to use .100" then
pressed on the new bearing then place
the solid collar on and use .056" worth of shims. 



With the yoke driven down hard with the
electric impact, the pinion pre-load was
a nice 10 in/lb. At 10 in/lb of resistance,
I could not get my pinky to rotate the 
pinion just as a reference.
 


Not even my calibrated pinky can compete
with this pendulum style torque wrench. 



This puller, specifically designed to pull
carrier bearings, is now one of my favorite tools.
It gripped under the bearing cage nicely, was 
very stable, and did not slip off. 









Probably a good idea to file the high spots
off to minimize backlash variations. 



I don't do the boiling oil/water trick for
getting the ring gear to drop onto the
case.....just support the teeth with some
wood and align/tap it down til the bolts 
catch. Then use the bolts to pull it
on the rest of the way. 



The carrier bearings can be pressed
on but this worked for me. 


 
Almost ready to check the pattern....just 
load the case into the 3rd,get the backlash
in the ballpark, and tighten the carrier bearings. 



This is just something I whipped up for
an easy interface for the big torque wrench.
 


First painted pattern....too deep. 


 
Checking the cage for freeplay while I
use the press....if the cage starts 
contacting the bearing splitter then
I have to break out the 4" handgrinder
and clearance the splitter cups. 


 
Assembled everything and ran another pattern
with .092" shim this time. Backlash is about
10 thou here so if I tighten it up some I can
bring this good pattern in closer to the toe. 



Coast side good 



This is gonna be the final settings for
this side of the pumpkin....so just tweat
the backlash into the 7 thou area and
tighten the carrier bearings......... 



I have a handle that attaches to the bottom
yoke and use a prybar to give the necessary
resistance to get a readable pattern. Don't
do this with loose carrier bearings as the
painted pattern will be all wrong. 



Yep. Reducing the BL brought the pattern 
to the toe side. Call it a competition 
pattern....Flexor is gonna need this as
he has alot of competition with some of 
those waterfalls. 


 
Tighten the carrier bearings to a real
70 ft/lbs in this case and keep the 
BL the same .007" 



Now I can take the yoke off on the other 
side and do the end step seal install. This 
Makita 220 ft/lb electric impact cost about
180 but it has paid for itself twice over. 



Don't forget the splashguard... 



I use a little grease on the inside pinion
contacting lip and UltraBlue RTV on the 
outside. I then carefully tap the seal
in place with a hammer. 



This National seal pn 1177 has a decent
double lip....I think I'll pick up a few
more of these. Ahhh ya....it's nice to
have a digital camera that can get up 
close....Sony Mavica 85. 



I cleaned the threads and
used the blue Locktite liberally. 



Ran the nut on with the electric and held 
the trigger til the 5 count. No dimple needed.

Interesting notes about the pinion pre-load (PPL)..... 

Checked PPL with just the pinion in the equation.....10 in/lb 

PPL with the case in place and tight Carrier bearings....18 in/lb

Last step- add the basic 2 lip pinion seal(lubed)....22 in/lb.

Kinda interesting that the seal causes an increased drag
of 4 in/lb. Results may vary with different seals. I wonder
if anybody factors that in when using the crush sleeve technique? 


Date coded :)



Why I don't do GENUINE.....