Rebuilding my 10 bolt open diff with a LSD and 3.73 gears. Originally when I started with .0340 stock thickness pinion spacer both the coast and drive sides were centered heel to toe, but up high on the face. The instructions that came with the gears said to move the pinion closer to the ring gear. Once I did that it was all screwed up. So I reduced it some, and got the coast side back to ware I started. The drive side is still towards the toe. Both are still towards the face, just slightly lower. Should I return to the .0340 spacer, and just try decreasing the backlash to try and draw the it further down towards the flank? Pics attached of ware I am currently at.

 

It is very hard to see the pattern with new gears. I'm surprised yours shows like that. You must be doing something right.
You probably already have these diagrams. But in case you don't...…….. These are for used gears.
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tran...ml#post6139989
What are you getting for backlash?

This diagram below says to INCREASE the pinion shim for deeper gear contact.
Is your shim located directly under the pinion gear? Some rears are different, like the 9 bolt, I believe.
But I agree that you should be moving the pinion gear closer to the ring gear.

 

I found a couple more good diagrams.

 

I added a few drops of gear oil to some of the marking compound. Not enough to make it run, but just enough to make it smooth. It's often to thick and shouldn't be grainy when brushed on. This also keeps it from drying so you can wipe it off if you need to. Plus I left my pinion flange tool on so I could provide resistance to the pinion while turning the ring gear. The load helps the pinion make a better mark. The rear is out and on jack stands so using the brakes for this is out of the question.

Yesterday I did try to increase the backlash to see what result I would get. It creeped ever so little down the gear. I hit 0.006 backlash on the money by luck. Lol
Yeah my pinion shim goes between the pinion and bearing. Depending on the weather today I will try adjusting the pinion depth again. A nieghbor was having a wedding yesterday, and didn't want to be a jerk making a bunch of noise yesterday.

I may have added far to thick of a shim last time. I took the instruction's advice and started with a big movement first. I think that changed it so much that it confused me.

The thing that confused me the most was that it did not move towards the flank at all. It just moved the drive side to the edge of the toe, and coast side a little towards the heel. Both sides had been centered between the toe and heel, but up on the face before I increased the thickness.

Those color diagrams you posted help a bunch. Most are pretty vague for the none expert, and leave room for interpretation. I'm not concerning my self with to much with centering between the toe and heel that much. Trying to mainly focus on centering between the face and flank. Toe to heel is mainly controlled by the machining of the housing. Which are not done to same tolerances. So each rear will have a different toe to heel pattern when the depth is correct. Engine load will spread the pinion contact across the ring gear anyway.

 

Think I figured out ware I went wrong. I did not fully torque the bearing caps. When dealing with hundredths and thousandths of an inch adjustment it can make a big deal. Torqued them down an rechecked. The pattern moved a little further towards the flank. Still needs the pinion shim adjusted, but at least now I know why I was getting odd results.

 

Think I got it. Increased the pinion shims from 0.0510 to 0.0585. had to readjust my backlash. Which is at 0.007 now. Nice and on the tight side of the specs. Just need to set the final carrier bearing preload, and install the crush sleeve for the final pinion bearing preload. Double check, and reinstall in the car.

My new 28 spline axles arrived today as well. So all together a pretty good day. The trick to getting consistent results was torquing the carrier bearings down. Not just snugging them up. So let my mistake be the lesson of others who are trying this for the first time.

 

Unless you have a case spreader, you cannot get too much carrier bearing preload.
By your description, it sounds like you got it!
Good job.

 

I can rotate it out by removing the caps an spinning it with a wrench. Wasn't sure if that's good enough. I have 2 thick shims on both sides so I put a thin in between them to protect it while I tap it in place.

I'm having a final assembly issue with the crush sleave. This thing is insane! I have an impact wrench that can do 585 ft pounds, and it can not budge the crush sleave. I was cheater bars with my 1/2 2 and half foot breaker bar, and it broke the breaker bar. All I can get is 1 or 2 inch pounds rotating torque. I need 12 to 15.

Given the darn thing won't budge with over 600 foot pounds of torque, is it ok to leave it as is? If not, what the heck will crush this thing? The moon crashing into it?

 

It took my 1/2" breaker bar with a 5" pipe and every ounce of power I had to tighten mine.
You have to crush that sleeve.
They do make a solid spacer to replace the crush sleeve and you use shims to get the proper preload.
You might like that better. https://www.summitracing.com/parts/rat-4111




You did the side shims correctly.

 

Now that I think about, I borrowed my neighbors 3/4" drive socket set and the 5 foot cheater bar.

 

Well I picked up a 3/4 breaker bar and socket. The pinion flange tool I had bought from bleeping jeep just for this is apparently junk, and does not live up to standards at all. It appears to just be mild steel. See pics. I ordered a stainless steel one since stainless is harder and less likely to bend.