I am in the process of building a 9 bolt and will be adding a T/A rear cover and stud kit. I have 2 of these rears here.
I know the rear cover places a load on the bearing caps and I noticed one of the caps on the rear I am building has an uneven or damaged surface where the cover bolts will be loading the cap.
My question is, can I swap the bearing caps from the other rear into the one I'm building now or are these caps peened for fit in a specific rear?

 

The bearing bore is machined after the caps are installed, so swapping the caps, or even putting them on in a different orientation, will not work. If you swap them or move them the bearing bore will no longer be round.

 

Thank's BGH.
I think the caps need a flat ground on them anyway, so that should be ok.

Sure wish you were still doing this stuff, after the luck I've had with diffs the last 4 years, I'd sure prefer having someone I trust do the work.

Been talking to you for ages on this board and camaros.net and you have always had an accurate answer or solution (including that pinion yoke I got off you) to my questions.

 

Glad to help.

 

Do you mean the ridge on the center of the cap? Most, if not all 9 bolts have that, you need to grin the cap down to a flush surface

 

Be carefull about how much you grind off. The center of the cap is the most stressed, and weakest part. Most caps break in the center, so don't take off more than you have to.

 

Thank's guys, I will take a minimum off to get a flat surface. The cap I am worried about almost looks like there was a casting error right on that area. There is no raised area there, it's more like casting flash. Guess I'll find out how deep it goes when I grind the flat.

 

 

Thank's for the pics TT! Hopefully I can get rid of the bad casting and still have that much meat left. I sure wish someone (Big Gear Head?) would do a step by step write up with pics and proven specs. The old posts have some inconsistencies with backlash and the torque required to rotate the pinion after the crush sleeve begins to compress.
I will be using a smart sleeve and severe duty pinion shims, will this change any of the measurements? I wouldn't think so, but this is my first diff rebuild and I really can't afford to do it twice!
Any tips or procedures would be greatly appreciated!

 

Bearing preload will stay the same. The only difference will be the amount of torque required to crush the spacer.

There is a pretty good thread on here that was done about a year ago with lots of pics. It was for a 10 bolt, but still should be helpful with your build.

 

I think this is the one you are talking about, lots of good info here.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tran...axle-gear.html

Thank's!

 

Yes, that's the one.