Just finished rebuilding my 10 bolt. Perfect pinion preload, backlash and the pattern on the gears looks beautiful. One last minute head scratching moment on the cross pin though:

Is it normal on a brand new rebuild to have to give the cross pin a few taps for it to go home? Emphasis on a few *taps*. I'm not talking Heeman hammer blows or firm whacks here. I rebuilt my Eaton with new clutches. I set it up tight but not locked up. I watched an excellent tutorial on how to "Tune Your Posi" (Tom's Eaton Posi Tune-Up Tutorial). Unfortunately, I do not have anything along the lines of the machine he used in the video to wear the clutches in on a bench. I know the crosspin clearance and the axle endplay will loosen up a bit as the clutches break-in.

It is most definitely the axles the pin is getting hung up on and NOT the spring plates. Both axles have absolutely zero endplay. Does this sound normal? Or should I lap the flat side of the C-Clips something to the tune of .001" at a time until everything is within spec?

The rearend is completely assembled and ready to go but I have the cover off and a bag over it for now until I get a bit of input on the subject.

 

I'd just sand the end of the axle to fit. There is usually a 1/16-1/8 in out play on the c clip axles I've worked on. Just as long as the c clip cant come out...

D

 

I did the opposite. I machined .001" off the flat side of each C-clip. They fit perfectly and each axle now has a **** hair of endplay that will increase to the proper value as the clutches wear in.

 

that's all it was? .001? That's not hardly anything.
Well glad ya got it.

 

Sorry. I got careless with decimal placement. I took .011" off each clip. I went from .1480 to .1370 and that did the trick.