Should a differential that is out of the car be able to spin the wheel studs/axle shaft in either direction? clock wise or counter clockwise?

I was looking at my long neglected J65 equipped 10 bolt diff last night, which is sitting on the floor on floor dollies, hiding in the corner and thought heh, I'll try to spin the axles, but moving them clock wise they didn't seen to want to spin. counter clock wise they easily spun. quickly gave up, it was late, time to go, and didn't want to have to wash my hands again.

 

Yes, if both axles and the pinion gear are free to turn, then it should turn equally easily both ways.

 

Thanks. guess I'll actually pull it out of the corner today and have a closer look. seems like I had tested this a while back so not sure why it would stop working all by itself just sitting there on the ground.

 

i am able to turn free in both directions however if i push the yoke inward it is locking up/gets very hard to turn. also appears the yolk is further out than normal. bigger than normal gap between seal and end of yolk

 

out when it turns good, 2nd photo is with it pushed in and doesn’t turn forward properly

 

opened up cover, can see what is happening. the gears attached to yolk interfere with gears they turn with. (sorry diff dummy here). too much play? what causes the play?

 

Not a diff master but that is a time bomb waiting to go off haha. Pinion nut not torqued correctly ? Crush sleeve\spacer? bearing? I just picked up a 4th gen diff off an SS. That big gap between the yoke and the diff housing should be not be there that's for sure.

 

That's messed up with a capital F.

No wonder it's uninstalled and laying around in a scrap heap. It's hard to believe somebody drove something around long enough to trash it that bad. I bet you could hear it several blocks down the street. Or maybe, somebody took it apart, and just half-assed it back together. No way that can be used like it is though.

 

what do you think the issue may be? the gears look good, nice and crisp. don’t think it was run this way.

 

ok, i’m officially an idiot. the yolk bolt was loose. i got this years back, maybe i loosened it for some reason. too many things going on since that time to remember and i didn’t take notes like i have since learned to do

 

Looks like the pinion nut is loose. You can tighten it up but you need the correct preload on the pinion bearings and correct rotational tq.

 

Thanks for the details. I'm a way off from installing, but good to know. just drug it out of the deep, dark recesses of my garage to see what it looked like, hadn't played with it in a while. was just starting to get my mind on it and ran across this.... hopefully be year end it will be in.