Intro:: Shawn was looking to have some good 529 gears installed but did
not have a lot of extra money so we consulted and it was decided to
re-use the old bearings as long as they were still servicable. We could
also get away with a simple crush sleeve in the front. I already know
that Shawn is very hard on his equipment so I decided to use US GEAR
529's. The rear install would get the solid collar treatment.


 
We did the front first. 
Started by marking the caps.....


 
Just using the dial indicator to 
check run-out. I had less than .002".

 
The ring gear bolts were loaded with blue 
Loctite and 70 ft/lb. The carrier bearing 
on the ring gear side was a loose fit but 
sleeve lock compound took care of that.


 
The old pinion bearings passed 
inspection and will be re-used. 


 
Those wide shims on the left leave no 
room for fingers to grip if/when the 
pinion bearing has to be re-moved for 
a re-shim....the solution is to trim 
them down like the ones on the right.  
I used a pair of pliers and a thin 
cutting wheel to trim off the edges.


 
A crush sleeve will be used as the last 
process so for now it's assembled with no 
crush at all and snug the nut down til 
about 4 in/lb of drag is measured.


 
I like to use anti-seize on the bearing 
adjuster threads. Easier to overcome all 
that thread resistance when doing the 
final 90 ft/lb carrier bearing pre-load.


 
The backlash is about .010" here and the 
carrier bearings are very tight. To get 
a readable pattern, I wedge a crowbar 
against the ring-gear and rotate the 
pinion flange. Loose carrier bearings 
would cause false readings so tight 
counts. My support stand for the 3rd 
member is crude but will "evolve"
with time.


 
If the pinion bearings were new, I probably 
would use 97~100 thou for the pinion shim.....
but used bearings change that. I chose .105"
and this is a good pattern 1st time.


 
coast side .105"


 
This is the reason why pinion teeth generally 
don't break first(in a proper gear install)....
this is where the tooth on the ring itself ends. 
It's still about 1/4" from the heel end....it's 
the heel end that sees all the load during 
hi-horsepower applications.


 
Load the new crush sleeve up.....


 
The blue RTV helps the new seal tap on nicely. 
A hammer can ruin a seal. Don't forget to apply 
some grease/gear-oil to the rubber seal surfaces.


 
A very simple tool for locking the yoke in 
place. Blue Locktite is on the re-used nut.


 
I mentioned it on one of the internet 4x4 
boards that I could crush a sleeve with 2 
fingers so I did...and continued crushing 
it with 2 fingers until the spec was reached. 
Just wanted to show that it's not that hard 
to crush those things. The blue Loctite sort 
of acts like a thread lubricant anyways.


 
These are used bearings so I did not want 
to see more than 6 in/lb of pinion pre-load.


 
I couldn't resist....Even though there is 
Loctite on it, I had to spot MIG it. :)

 
With it all buttoned up, I made one more drive 
pattern check with the .007" backlash....looks great.

 
 :)

7 quick pics of the 529 rear install...