Huck's daily - 2005 Z71 crewcab

Rustisbest said:

Something that helped me if you decide to tear back in to it and check the pattern was to really thin the marking compound out. Spin the pinion with socket adapter on a cordless drill in forwards and reverse as fast as it'll go. Can add a little resistance with a prybar or your hand with a leather glove if you're careful.

On the rear did you add shims to each side of the carrier after checking backlash? Or did you check it with preload?
On the front for carrier preload I'm thinking I went a 2 extra notches on each adjuster after getting it back together. It's been a while though and I don't remember exactly. I remember making a tool to tighten them though.

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Yeah, I'm realizing that my compound was still too thick looking back through my pictures. I'm gonna open the rear end back up first since it seems like it may be the easiest to diag/fix, I'll re-run the pattern and re-check backlash before going any further.

Where I really messed up was going into this like a bull in a china shop and not measuring things as they initially came apart. Got nothing to go off of, though if it has to come all the way apart, I guess I could throw the factory stuff back in and take some measurements.

For the rear, I checked backlash every time with the shim pack/preload in it. That's one thing I did think to do when it came apart initially, measured the factory shims in the rear. Going off memory, I believe the 2 sides added together was something like .478, so that's what I shot to match as it was going back together. I think I ended up at like .476 or something along those lines. So I should be in the ballpark of factory pre-load, just a smidge light. The rear isn't making in howling/whining/wirring sounds, just a light, rhythmic sound. Like I can hear the teeth meshing or maybe I have some runout on the ring gear. I didn't see any when measuring backlash but I wonder if the teeth have some variation. These are US Standard gears.

So for the front, I ended up backing both adjusters all the way out. I left the driver's side (pinion side) adjuster all the way out and then tightened the pass side (ring gear) side adjuster until it felt like I had a little load on it and I could get the case halves back together. Checked backlash and made another adjustment. I need to look back at my notes but I believe I only moved the pinion side adjuster back in 1 or 2 notches. The ring gear side adjuster I believe I move it inboard 6-8 notches. It all spun smooth at that point, I spun it with a drill and it felt good, pattern was decent. Backlash was in spec. But when I did the final reassembly with axles and everything, it was much harder to spin. Not sure if that's a characteristic of these assemblies or if my side adjusters are completely wrong and too tight. In 4lo, I the engine was revving too much to hear anything over it. In 4hi, I had a deep, growling bearing sound around 10-15mph. Like when a wheel bearing is going bad. I assume it's all too tight and not too loose.

What a kick in the balls, sorry bro.

Thanks dude. I'm less bummed now that I've had a few days to cool off and talk it out with a couple guys. I'm gonna start with the rear, I can always pull the front axle apart and just put the outer stub shafts in to retain the wheel bearings and be able to drive it.

TotalyHucked said:

Thanks dude. I'm less bummed now that I've had a few days to cool off and talk it out with a couple guys. I'm gonna start with the rear, I can always pull the front axle apart and just put the outer stub shafts in to retain the wheel bearings and be able to drive it.

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Yeah I deleted the front drive in my Tahoe and use those stub shafts like that to hold the bearings together. I took the diff actuator and taped it into a large pill bottle and tied it up into the engine compartment so it wouldn't throw any service 4WD codes. Mine is a mechanical actuator not a thermal one.

Yep, that's exactly how my truck is, same actuator. That's not a bad idea to bring it up in the engine compartment rather than just tying up the plug/wiring out of the way underneath.

TotalyHucked said:

Yep, that's exactly how my truck is, same actuator. That's not a bad idea to bring it up in the engine compartment rather than just tying up the plug/wiring out of the way underneath.

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Here's the stub shaft bolted in

@Old77

89Suburban said:

@Old77

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89Suburban said:

Here's the stub shaft bolted in

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I've known about this trick for years but never had to do it

I have an honest question as I've not seen this be done before. Instead of the axle half shaft can't you just run a 2wd hub if you've essentially turned your righ from 4wd to 2wd whether it be for a short term or long term?

Yeah you could, it's just more 'spensive

Came up to the shop yesterday to get back on this thing. Took the time to slowly take it apart and measure everything as it came back apart to see if anything moved on me.



This was my setup for checking backlash and making damn sure the pinion was locked in lol





Coast side. So after reading that 10/12 bolt setup book, I learned that this is less than ideal. Not bad, but kinda has a sharp-ish edge down at the bottom. According to that book, this means the pinion is too close to the ring gear.



Drive side wasn't bad but according to that book, it could be better and a more defined "oval shape". The goal is to look like an oval, soft edges, fat in the middle with no hard lines.

Unfortunately my bearing puller tool clamshell wasn't quite the right side for these Koyo bearings, it slipped and messed up the cage. So it fell apart and I had to cut off the inner part. Phooey, gotta order more pinion bearings. That's where I left off yesterday, had to meet some friends for dinner.






I'd already gotten my shims figured up, so this morning was quick, just threw it all back in the truck to check it out again. Didn't make any carrier changes, took .003 out of the pinion shim pack



Check backlash in one spot, that's great.



Pinion locker 10000 again

So I ran a quick pattern. Drive side, it lightened up just a touch, smoother pattern



Coast side definitely looks better, more football shaped, less hard edge on the bottom



So then I decided to check backlash in a few different spots. There's more runout that I realized. I thought I'd checked it before but I guess I didn't. This may be my noise I heard

So I decided to paint and run a pattern every 90* just to see. These are all coast side





This is pre-change/during teardown on the left, right is the new setup on the coast side