Rear End Frustration Thread: Chasing the Thump and Bang Gremlins

Attention Deficit Disorder NOTE: I'm going to give a lot of details about my Jeep here to start out with, and some of them may not be relevant to the problem at hand. No one is forcing you to read this. If you don't want to be bothered to read the details, feel free to not comment on the issues I'm discussing. Otherwise, all thoughts and commentary are appreciated.

Background: About a month ago I posted in a resurrected thread where someone had asked how--many years after the thread had become inactive--how the OP's Aussie locker was holding up. I thought that was pretty funny and I responded that I loved mine, had been using it for years with no problems, but that recently (meaning winter of 2014-2015) I had started having problems with my rear axle and suspected the Aussie.

Here's a "brief" synopsis of those troubles. We had lots of snow up here in Clinton County, PA this year. Therefore, I did lots of snow wheeling since I now live in an area littered with awesome state forest trails, most of which are mundane in the fair weather months but which become quite interesting when you stack 12-15 inches of snow on them, especially when some of them also double as snowmobile trails (these are legally dual use trails in the winter, as an FYI for all those prepared to pounce!). Anyway, the snowmobiles pack the snow hard, but only barely one Jeep wide, so WHEN you fall off the hard pack, it's a challenge to get back on the trail again. No matter what, lots of wheel spin is involved on all the super snowy trails. It's rare to be able to dig down to dirt, so I'm just spinning wheels at various levels of snow depth, slowly paddling my way through the snow in many cases.

I started to notice a banging noise when I was spinning the tires, and it really seemed quite similar if not identical to the occasional banging noise the Aussie locker makes on hard pavement when it's trying to lock up in a turn that you're giving it gas through, except that by the time I pulled it off the road, it was happening almost constantly. I'm used to that noise and many others have also mentioned it's just something to get used to with autolockers. I mentioned my recent experience with excessive banging during wheelspin in the other thread, and that I suspected it may be the locker. But then when I pulled the diff cover, everything looked fine. Here is a quote of mine from the other thread:

"So I pulled the cover, and the center gap was fine at 0.163". The locker looks just about brand new, the springs look fine and there are no chips or broken teeth on the ring or pinion. All the u-joints on the front and rear drive shafts look fine with no obvious play. The oil was filthy, but other than that, it seems like everything is as it should be. The locker passes the function test also. Now I'm wondering if there really might be a problem with the transfer case. I do have a couple extras, but none of them are set up to just swap in and use the same drive shaft. I was hoping to crack the differential and just see an obvious problem. . . I think it might be time to post up in a separate thread.

At this point, for the record, I am not able to fault the locker yet. I think I need to do a little more investigation with an observer watching my tires when I spin them in the snow. That's when I get the most dysfunction."

I then watched some videos on youtube of XJ's with NP242 cases that had chain stretch/skipping issues and the noises coming out of them were very similar to mine. So it seemed like an "aha" moment and I ordered a new chain. Over the next couple of weeks I pulled the t-case and replaced the chain. The speed sensor bolt broke off so I drilled that out and heli-coiled the hole, so that is functional again. However, I noticed that the chain I pulled out was not very different in size from the new one that I put in. I know a little bit of stretch can equal serious cog slipping under tension from dealing with endless stretched mountain bike chains over the years, so I wasn't very concerned that I may not be addressing the real problem at that time.

Putting the Jeep back together got interesting since the tail pipe broke off cleanly in the exhaust pipe and various other things went wrong like the rear drive shaft grease had turned to super glue and required a come-along to pull it apart and regrease, but I got it put back together, put new gear oil in the rear and new ATF fluid in the transfer case, and took it out for a spin on pavement.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to get rid of the rear end noise or associated instability. On pavement, it is evident that when the slippage/popping/banging occurs, there is also a little bit of sideways wiggle that occurs. This brings me back to suspicion of the locker or at least the rear end. A friend of mine asked me if it might be the splines on the pinion, and then that made me think of the splines on the axle shafts as well. The dysfunction manifests more easily if the transfer case is in the 2wd position (I usually drive it in Full Time 4wd), which is pretty typical of the rear locker's road manners and a good part of the reason I drive it with full time engaged constantly. Keeping the torque split 50/50 all the time makes it easier to go around corners without all the loading up and banging back into place.

Vehicle Setup: This is a '98 XJ with the 242 transfer case. The 242 output shaft has been hacked and tapped to use a standard front drive shaft. The splines on this adaptation have been recently verified to be good. The rear axle is a '96 Chrysler 8.25 that came with 4.10's and 27 spline shafts. I upgraded to 29 spline carrier/shafts and added an Aussie locker to it several years ago. The axle shafts are stock. The front axle is the matching '96 Dana 30 which I pulled the carrier out of and put in an OX locker. I got the one with 30 splines at the case and run alloy shafts that have the stock spline count outers so I can run standard unit bearings, which I seem to go through a lot of. Except for the bearings and u-joints, I have never had any problems with this front end setup.

In the winter I typically run 31x10.5x15 BFG AT's on stock steel rims which I have more than a full set of studded ice chains for. The chains got used a lot this past winter. I run Alloy USA wheel spacers which allow the chains to fit without hitting the leaf spring retaining clips.

When the snow starts to melt, I put on a set of 33x10.5x15 BFG KM2's on stock aluminum teardrop wheels. I leave the wheel spacers on which works well with this tire size given the stock wheel backspacing. The banging problem instantly got worse with the larger, heavier tires. It was only after I put these tires on that I tried to fix the problem by inspecting the locker and changing out the transfer case chain.

The Jeep is lifted maybe 5 inches or so on RE springs, with some JKS spacers up front for the coils and one of those boxed setups that allow one to adjust their shackle angle and also get a little extra lift from on the leaf springs. I read about those on here but can't remember who made them. I run RE shocks appropriate to my lift height in the front but I run stock sized shocks in the back because I had to cut off the old shock mounts and I welded on aftermarket shock mounts high up on the rear axle and the size that now fits is the original stock size. I had a little sag in the rear springs and use shocks that have a coil spring on the outside of them to help with such problems and they actually leveled the Jeep out nicely while retaining good ride quality.

What now?: Well, now I will pull the rear axle shafts when I have the time to check the splines on them. I'll have to remove the otherwise perfect looking locker to do that. I will probably put in my No-Slip locker in when I put it back together just to see if that also suffers the same problem. If it doesn't, I'll have a quick answer even if I can't see a reason why the Aussie is malfunctioning. I'll also look into the possibility that the splines on the pinion are bad.

I know that the front DS u-joint is going bad. I'll replace that as soon as my new one arrives. That might be a week from now.

I also have a 231 transfer case that I upgraded with a PORC SYE and a Tera 2 Low kit that I removed a while ago because it started blowing ATF fluid out the rear seal and the new seal I put on didn't fix the leak. It also needs a new chain--actually needs one judging from the slap noise it makes when I wiggle the rear output. I have the chain and some new seals. I will be putting that in if I need to just as a known good reference point, function-wise.

In the meantime, I will be happy to hear what anyone here has to say. I'm a paying member here not because I get any special benefits from being one, but because this is where I learned how to deal with my aging Jeeps, and I've gained a lot of knowledge and useful ideas here. My honest appreciation is what makes me open my wallet for this organization. So I'm here at the reservoir of knowledge once again, this time with a problem that someone else must have had at some point, and maybe field some ideas that can help me get back out on the trails a little bit faster than I otherwise would have. I won't be doing any work on it until at least Monday the 13th, if then. I have another XJ in the garage that needs to have its radiator replaced before I have space to work on the '98. The radiator is almost out! I just need to find or rebuy the quick disconnect tools (of which I already have two sets somewhere--oh, well) I may be able to reply to any questions or ideas that come up on here before then, though.

Thanks in advance, as always, for your clever insights and ideas!

--wavingpine11

Accidental post. I hope you get your situation worked out.

What about pulling the rear drive shaft and driving it around? Could you take the Aussie out and install open style spider gears to rule out the Aussie? I would think if splines on a pinion, axle or driveshaft where skipping it would be more consistent.

I did consider putting open spider gears back in. The main problem there would be that the originals are 27 spline so they don't match the new carrier. I'd have to source a set of them from somewhere. If anyone has a set of 29 spline open spider gears they have no use for, I'd be happy to take them for a small fee plus shipping.

I do agree that the spline damage seems like a long shot, but I am grasping at straws at this point. I will drop the rear shaft later today, though--that's a quick easy way to isolate torque from the rear axle. I do know that I don't hear the banging when I'm coasting.

Thank you for your thoughts.

Drum brakes? Might pull those and make sure the shoes aren't floating around

Sounds like the exact issue I was having. Pulled the rear shaft and problem went away. It looked all good to me, but the driveline shop said it would be more to fix than a new one. The new shaft is great.

I'd almost look at your motor mounts too, though I don't think that's your issue.

The rear's a c-clip axle, and from my understanding, some popping is to be expected.

I've been chasing everything too, and have been having a popping int he rear when taking 90º turns, but I've already torqued everything down.

Not sure what else to really do. I'm pretty OCD and this kind of thing bugs me, but it's holding up.

thatxjguy said:

The rear's a c-clip axle, and from my understanding, some popping is to be expected.

I've been chasing everything too, and have been having a popping int he rear when taking 90º turns, but I've already torqued everything down.

Not sure what else to really do. I'm pretty OCD and this kind of thing bugs me, but it's holding up.

Click to expand...

Well, I've been driving with this one as it is currently set up for several years, and of course I get the occasional pop and bang going around corners, but this sounds like it's about to grenade on me, so something has changed to take it from typical operation to how it's functioning now.

To update on the situation, I removed the rear drive shaft and the noise completely disappeared as I drove it with the transfer case in the 4wd position. So I then removed the front drive shaft and swapped in the rear drive shaft that I had just pulled into the front position, to see if I could duplicate the noise. I figured that if the drive shaft was the problem, this would be the experiment to reveal that, and it is an easy experiment, so it was first on the list of diagnostic procedures. I had no issues whatsoever with the rear drive shaft when using it to drive the front axle.

My conclusion thus far is that the problem I'm having really is a rear axle problem, and it only occurs when the axle is actively driven. My prime days to work on the Jeep are Sundays and Mondays, but I may have time to do some more work tomorrow also. That time may get chewed up as I put the front end together of my '99 XJ (the '98 is the one having rear axle problems) which I just installed a new radiator in. Having two Jeeps is kind of like having two geriatric patients living out their last days with me, their surgeon. The '99 is currently on the operating table (aka my garage) for the radiator transplant so I have to wait to do anything too serious with the '98 until there is garage space. I don't like to have disabled vehicles sitting on the street.

Once I have the '99 put back together (hopefully tomorrow evening) I'll pull the rear differential cover and actually remove the Aussie locker this time so I can inspect the system more fully. If I can find the spider gears (which I may never have had--not sure if they came with the 29 spline carrier or if it was completely stripped) I will put those back in. If not, I have a Powertrax No-Slip that will go in instead. I would prefer to completely simplify the situation by going back to the open differential but I have to work with what is available. Just the way that the vehicle behaves when I'm driving it makes me suspect the locker, but previous inspection led me to think otherwise, which is why I ended up replacing the chain in the transfer case.

I will update as more information becomes available.

xriide said:

Sounds like the exact issue I was having. Pulled the rear shaft and problem went away. It looked all good to me, but the driveline shop said it would be more to fix than a new one. The new shaft is great.

I'd almost look at your motor mounts too, though I don't think that's your issue.

Click to expand...

I have Brown Dog motor mounts with the extra side plates that attach to multiple extra points on the motor. They just went on a couple of years ago and they still look perfect. Thank you for your suggestions, though. I was really hoping it was the rear shaft since that's such an easy fix but as I detailed in my last post, the experiments I performed yesterday seem to rule that out.

The '99 is back on the road after a successful radiator swap, leaving me free to put the '98 in the garage and get back to dealing with this rear axle problem. I was thinking about the open spider gear swap suggestion and realized that I can pull the spiders from the '99 to put in the '98 axle. Makes for a bit more work but I think it's the best approach to be able to tell if the locker is actually the source of my problem. I'll be able to inspect the axle shafts when I pull everything apart. I'll start with the '98 since if an obviously bad part is discovered during the disassembly I won't have to bother digging into the '99 at all. The only part I won't be able to inspect during this process will be the pinion gear splines, but I don't really believe they are the source of my problem anyway. I'll get started on this after work tonight, but won't have enough time to finish. Hopefully I'll be doing the next test drive tomorrow night, though.

I have some very interesting results to report from this morning's efforts. I removed the spider gears from the '99 Chrysler 8.25 axle. No problem there. I went to install the two side gears from the '98 into the '99 (which has a '96 axle which has been converted with a 29 spline carrier) and then ran into a very obvious problem. On the passenger side, the axle shaft slides in far enough to install the side gear and the c-clip. On the driver's side, however, the shaft bottoms out before it goes in far enough to install the c-clip. I tried installing the side gear that had enough clearance on the other side, knowing that the gears are the same size but trying to be thorough, and the result was unsurprisingly the same: the PS was fine and the DS wouldn't allow the c-clip to be installed.

Since the '99 was torn apart anyway, I tried its DS axle shaft in the '98 and vice versa. The result was that either shaft works fine in the '99 but neither will seat deeply enough in the '98 to permit installation of the c-clip. While this would generally lead me to believe that this spacial issue was causing the problem I've been having where it sounds like the rear is going to explode when I'm driving it, I had done a function test on the Aussie locker before I disassembled it and also measured the center gap, and all indications were fine. The locker also looks fine, with very little wear given its several years of service. At no time had stock spider gears been installed after the conversion, but until recently, I had no issues with the locker either.

So currently, I'm stumped and wondering how the Aussie fit in there in the first place. I suppose that there are some minor dimensional differences that involve the c-clips but I haven't had a chance to compare the parts yet, or to put the Aussie side gear back in yet. But that will be my next step, just to see if the c-clip will install at all with the Aussie gear in there again. If it doesn't, I'm obviously missing a small stupid detail. I just wish I knew what that detail might be.

Come on -ites, help me out and lay down some theories or suggestions! I have noticed I'm mostly talking to myself here and I apologize if my opening ADD comment put a sour taste in anyone's mouth. I was just asking for a decent read-through of my symptoms and situation before suggestions were thrown out. Even if no one sees fit to engage with me on this topic I will still follow through with an account of my eventual resolution anyway, in the event that the information will be useful to anyone else in the future.

As an aside, I did install my No-Slip locker in the '99, so that's out of the equation completely for the '98. The No-Slip lockers are much harder for me to get in and out of the carrier, so it's going to live the rest of its life in the '99. I won't be going back to an open diff in that one anyway unless the locker breaks, but I run 235/75-15's on it and am not expecting any trouble. I prefer the No-Slip with a 231 transfer case as I tend to get less binding while in 2WD than I do with the Aussie. I just hadn't taken the initiative to install it until now when I needed to pull the cover off for the open spider gears. Usually the '99 is a commuter vehicle while the '98, while commutable, eats up more gas so it's mostly used on the trails. Anyway, the No-Slip passed the function tests and I just need to put the cover back on and fill it up with oil again. It's good to have at least one drivable Jeep, but I'm really hoping for two sometime soon!

thatxjguy said:

The rear's a c-clip axle, and from my understanding, some popping is to be expected.

I've been chasing everything too, and have been having a popping int he rear when taking 90º turns, but I've already torqued everything down.

Not sure what else to really do. I'm pretty OCD and this kind of thing bugs me, but it's holding up.

Click to expand...

Just to put my situation in perspective, I am getting major thumps and bangs and popping when I'm turning very small angles but worse, even when I'm going straight and wheels are spinning. I started noticing these symptoms in the snow, where there was essentially no traction to induce the Aussie to unlock and differentiate in any manner whatsoever. However, right before I pulled the locker out, I pulled into a dirt parking lot and gave it some gas and it sounded and felt like someone was back there pounding the internals with a sledge hammer. I noticed that there were two tire marks on the ground, which is to say I think that the locker was in fact locking while I turned on the gravel.

Who knows, maybe the cogs in the transfer case are bad (they looked fine to my eye when I put in the new chain) and I'm digging into the axle needlessly, but now that I've had a problem getting the open side gear installed on the DS, I'm even more suspicious of that axle.

So are you saying you can't even get the shaft you took out to go back in? I would be looking in the brake on that side for something that isn't letting the shaft in all the way, but honestly I have no help for you.

This thread will most likely help someone in the future though so don't abandon it just because no one is giving their input currently.

blubullett said:

So are you saying you can't even get the shaft you took out to go back in? I would be looking in the brake on that side for something that isn't letting the shaft in all the way, but honestly I have no help for you.

This thread will most likely help someone in the future though so don't abandon it just because no one is giving their input currently.

Click to expand...

That is correct. It slides in most of the way, but bottoms out just shy of being able to install the c-clip. It may be only by a 1/4 inch or so, but it's definitely not going in far enough. The same shaft did go in far enough when I tried it in the other differential that the donor spider gears came from. The shaft from the donor axle was also not sliding in far enough to install the c-clip. The most perplexing thing about this is that I had the Aussie locker installed correctly in this exact housing only a few days ago. If I get a chance today before work, I will check to see if I can get the Aussie side gear back in with a c-clip. This should help me determine if this particular fitment problem always existed since I installed the replacement carrier several years ago or if there is some kind of interference occurring now that is somehow an artifact of the recent disassembly that I'm not clever enough to perceive yet.

When I originally got the pair of axles, I'm pretty sure that I switched the carrier, shimmed the new carrier for decent backlash and mesh pattern, then bought a used No-Slip locker and ran that from the outset. Later I bought the Aussie locker because I thought it was going to be more durable, based on accounts I mostly read on this and other forums. Plus, I used to have a Dana 35 rear in a '92 5-speed that I had an Aussie installed in, and that survived a lot of abuse, albeit with relatively small tires, both from myself and then subsequently from my brother, who I later sold it to after he recklessly crashed it while he was borrowing it. He was no less rough on it as the owner, and right before he junked the poor neglected thing I repossessed the Aussie locker and it looked to be in near-perfect condition. So with the intention of going to a larger tire size, I preemptively bought the Aussie locker for the 8.25 axle and pulled the No-Slip out.

The point of going over that history is primarily to illustrate that this axle has had two different lunchbox lockers installed in it without trouble, but since I went to a locker immediately after the carrier conversion, this inability to accept stock spider gears may have existed from the start. My modest goal for today if I can swing it before work is to just reinstall the Aussie side gear to see if I can get that c-clip in there still. Of course I will search for the cause of the clearance loss but I would like to know if this was a preexisting issue or a new one.

I have some new thoughts on the problems I've been having with my rear axle. I was just reading "bump/thump noise from the rear." This thread, which appears as the first of the "Similar Threads" below, http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1066325, I found to quite an interesting read. I had written earlier, just as an aside, that my rear drive shaft (which actually used to be the front drive shaft prior to the t-case hack and tap) had completely seized. When I removed it, I had to use a pry bar to get it out of the yoke. After I had replaced the t-case chain, I couldn't get it to extend at all, even pulling with both hands while I pushed with both feet on the axle. So I attached a come-along to the front pull points and pulled the shaft out with that. It was still so stiff that I couldn't collapse it so I then pulled the two halves apart completely with the come-along, and hit the grease with a penetrant to soften it up and now it slides back and forth easily. As I wrote earlier, I drove the Jeep with this shaft removed from the rear output and the noise went away completely. I then swapped it into the front position, still leaving no shaft in the rear, and still no noise.

What I did not do was to the put the shaft back in the rear once it had been unseized. Thinking back on the conditions that led me to pull it off the road and start "fixing" things that may not have been broken to begin with, maybe I was dealing with spring wrap from driveline wind up spinning in the snow that then couldn't be easily relieved due to the exacerbating factor of the seized rear drive shaft. I'll check the pinion for play, since it seems like I was essentially hitting it with a jack hammer with the spring wrap/unwrap distributing impacts between the t-case and pinion yokes.

As much as I don't want to, for fear that I haven't yet dealt with the actual problem and will just have to tear everything apart again, I feel compelled to reinstall the Aussie locker (if the c-clip clearance issue doesn't prevent that), seal it up again, then test drive with the shaft that was there to begin with reinstalled in the rear position since it is no longer seized. I'll laugh if that was the actual problem from the start. Either way, I'm definitely doing my part to stimulate the economy where gear oil and black gasket making compound are concerned.

I'm still interested in tracking down the c-clip clearance mystery, but one thing at a time. . .

Outer axle bearings pressed in far enough or maybe wrong width? Does the backlash and pinion depth still ok? The dshaft sounds like it has a twist in the splines if it seized up

I had a chance to look at the differential carrier geometry a little bit last night. I reinstalled the Aussie locker side gears and then pushed in both axle shafts as far as they would go. With those, unlike the open spider side gears, both c-clips are easily installed. The passenger side shaft does in fact extend much further into the carrier, though. When I look at the brake drums, however, they appear to be in about the same position with respect to the backing plates. The reason I'm looking at the drums is that I have wheel spacers installed, so the shaft/drum/spacer is a semi-permanent unit. It would be difficult for me to remove the spacers without their being installed in the differential since I don't have a good way to hold the shaft stationary--should have done that before I disassembled the locker. I don't think it matters, though, because the drum should be flush with the surface the studs are mounted to, and no wear marks appear when I push it in the tube all the way and rotate.

The thought that occurred to me when I took all of this information in was that somehow the carrier is shimmed way too far to the right, as looked at from the rear. I may have recorded the exact shim thickness for each side as well as the backlash when I did the initial carrier swap but if I did, those specs are lost to the sands of time now. It seems hard to believe that the gears would be meshed that tightly and still give a good pattern, though, and I had chosen the shims based on the pattern I obtained after multiple adjustments. Since I was reusing the old gears I also would have expected some funky noises to be coming out of the rear based on what must be a very bad mesh. I've read that gears whine if they have already become worn in a certain mesh configuration. I'm going to order some gear marking compound and check the pattern and backlash specs again before further speculating further, but at this point the available body of evidence seems to point to the carrier position rather than some interference preventing complete axle shaft insertion on the DS. This would also explain why the PS shaft goes in so much farther, i.e. it is merely more exposed due to the carrier offset. This is really my best guess so far. I know I took pictures of the gear pattern before I called it good, but once again, that was years ago and I have no idea where those pictures are.

I also took a much closer look at the locker faces and noticed that some of the gear teeth were in fact a little mangled. I'm going to try to get some good pictures and have them hosted so I can show them here. I realize that this thread is a lot of words and no images, so I'm hoping to get pictures of various things I've been talking about to add value to this thread.

One thing that I've been trying to figure out is whether or not the axle shaft offset could have affected the locker and hastened wear or if it was a result of lots of wheel spin and associated loading/unloading of the drive line. It is easy to say, "Of course, it would" but the center pin ultimately determines the axle shafts' final positions. When I mock it up by leaving the side gears of the Aussie in and installing the cross pin, the system appears to be quite symmetrical, and this makes sense since the pin is preventing the excessive insertion of the PS shaft, and yet the DS shaft can still touch the cross pin. This means that while the suspected carrier offset makes it impossible to install the c-clip with the stock side gear, the shafts still center up in the carrier and have the same relative degree of freedom for lateral movement in the assembled system.

mtbxj87 said:

Outer axle bearings pressed in far enough or maybe wrong width? Does the backlash and pinion depth still ok? The dshaft sounds like it has a twist in the splines if it seized up

Click to expand...

I'm fairly certain that the outer bearings are the originals from 1996, and when I got the axle, the original carrier and 27 spline shafts were fully assembled. This is part of why I now suspect the carrier is offset too much to one side. I did an experiment last night where I removed the thrust washer from the stock side gear and I could almost squeeze the c-clip in. If I had that distance again more clearance, the clip would install with room to spare. It's not an enormous amount of required clearance, but certainly it's a lot of shimming distance with respect to setting up the gears. I may have done an awful job of setting up the gears? I'm investigating that next.

I somehow didn't see your post before writing my last one, I think because I hadn't refreshed the page since the last time I posted, but the outer axle bearing not being inserted far enough is a reasonable alternative to my idea that the carrier is offset. I'm usually fairly careful with work that requires attention to detail so if I did set up the shims wrong on the carrier, I would be embarrased. I remember being very careful when I did the work because I had not done anything like it before. I'm actually hoping that the bearing idea of yours is the actual problem so I don't have to feel like an incompetent hack. How do I check whether the bearing is seated in the tube far enough or not?

I'm pretty sure the drive shaft isn't twisted. I pulled it apart and loosened up the grease with Kroil and it slides like a champ now. I'll regrease it properly before I actually put it back in service. I was writing a couple days ago that I wondered if the frozen shaft combined with spring wrap were the cause of my problem after reading some threads on thumping noises coming from the rear but then I thought about it more and realized that I had already freed the drive shaft up after I had replaced the chain in the transfer case yet I still had the same violent noises coming from the axle when I did the subsequent test drive. That noise disappeared when I pulled the rear shaft and did not reappear when I put the pulled rear shaft in the front while leaving the rear axle disconnected. Who knows, though, maybe those factors caused increased wear on the locker. The locker looked great while it was still assembled but once I pulled it out and could see the gear faces, it became evident that there was more wear than originally thought. I will try to get pictures posted tonight or tomorrow showing that wear.

The pinion is still set at the original factory depth. I'll check the pinion for looseness and I will be remeasuring the backlash and getting another pattern from the gears once I get more marking compound but I'm suspecting the carrier shims, or as you suggested, the bearing not being seated far enough in the tube, based on all of the available information at this time.

Thank you for your suggestions. It's really nice to add other people's valuable thoughts and ideas to mine. This has been a very tricky and drawn out repair process. I haven't been able to do any decent wheeling in at least 6 weeks. I took the stock Jeep out after I put the No-Slip locker in at the end of last week, but a stock Jeep with no lift, armor, recovery points and no winch isn't a vehicle that I'm keen to do anything too fun with. I prefer to drive home rather than walk! It was nice to be back in the woods, for sure, but it left me hungering for more.

Honestly, at this point I wish I would have installed the No-Slip in the wheeling rig, but I find it to be very difficult to get it back out again and I had no reason to believe that I wouldn't be able to get the spider gears in place. That really threw off what should have been a really easy control experiment. I know it fits in the axle because I had it in there first, before I got the Aussie.

The Chrysler 8.25 doesn't use shims for the carrier bearings! There are threaded adjusters in the housing on either side of the carrier that are accessed from the ends of the housing with a long tool which you can fabricate from a length of pipe welded to a nut. Can't recall size of nut- just match it up with an adjuster. At the other end of the pipe you weld on an old half inch drive socket so you can attach a torque wrench to set the preload. It's not all that easy- you must set the backlash and preload in steps. If I get a chance I will measure the dimensions of the home made tool and get back with you.

The nut is "about" 1 3/8". The pipe is three feet long. You insert the pipe- nut end first- and engage the adjuster. The setup is fairly involved; best refer to a FSM. When done, the adjusters are locked in place with tabs located just outboard of the bearing caps. The entire mechanism is so obvious (not the setup part) that it's surprising you didn't see it. If you actually used shims on the carrier, you must have either installed them under the bearing cones or between the adjusters and the bearing cups!