I bought a 9-bolt posi that I'm going to swap in for my crappy 10-bolt this weekend, but I just noticed the other day that when you turn the passenger side axle there it about a 1/4in of play before the yoke turns but when you turn the driver side axle the yoke turns right away. Is this ok? if not how bad is it?

 

Does this happen only on the one side or is it consistent for both?

 

it only happens on the passenger side

 

Seems odd then. Pull the diff cover off and check for backlash and axle play. Wouldn't be a bad idea to examine the carrier while you have it open either. There is a good article at TGO home page tech for doing this.

 

Does it happen all they way around the rotation the same or are there loose spots and tight spots. Posi behaves a little funny if you don't know what to look for, so I wouldn't read too much into it.

 

it seems to happen in only one spot

 

It sounds like you could possibly have some bad teeth on your gears. Can't be sure though.

If you turn it round and round by the yoke do you notice any spots where it jams or makes noise? The ends of the axle will have to be free to turn. Turning a posi rear by the ends can be confusing. It tends to lock and without the wheels on there you don't have much torque.

This is out of the car right? Open it up and take a look inside. Clean it out and examine the teeth and everything else really closely. Look for remains of broken parts in the bottom.

Where did you get the axle from?

If the axle has high miles on it now might be a good time to rebuild it.

 

when I turn the yoke both axles turn freely, there are no spots where it becomes more difficult to turn, and I took off the rear cover and inspected the gears and there are no broken teeth or anything, it all looks good. I was told by the guy I bought it from that it has about 80,000 miles on it