Huck's daily - 2005 Z71 crewcab

[TotalyHucked]

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.

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.