Justin lightly filed the ring gear mounting surface
of the Yukon spool to make sure there were no burrs
to effect run-out and applied red Loctite to the 
ring gear bolts. The new carrier bearings went on 
with some careful hammer help. 



These gears end in "304" and that's Yukon.



The 1st step was to set the pinion up. I re-used the
old .086" factory pinion shim but added another .012"
to it for a total of .098". Pressing the new KOYO 
bearing on was a piece of cake with the 10 ton press.
As the pic shows, I like to use lotsa red gear oil 
to give smooth readings when checking the pinion 
pre-load with a torque wrench. We used a factory 
solid spacer with .054" shim thickness which put
us in the ballpark of 20 in/lb. 


 
Here, Justin is helping out as we get ready to paint
the first pattern. Of course, I have already set the
backlash to about .007" and cranked really tight on 
the carrier bearings. 


 
Drive side. .098".....good....but I will take
off .002" on the next go around.
 

 
Coast side .098" 


 
Took it all apart and re-shimmed to .096".
This pattern is good. I also fine tuned the
pinion pre-load by adding .002" to the collar
pack...this gave me a new value of
10~15 in/lb. 


 
The flange was a bit loose on the spline fit. I 
recommended to Josh to replace it at his leisure.
When you have a solid collar this can be done. 
I tightened up the new pinion nut with the 
electric impact and lightly dimpled it. Josh
will use Loctite on it after the new flange is on. 


 
Just a note that the Yukon spool really is a
quality piece....made in the USA and made
recently....March of 2004.