HELP - D35 not going together - can't drive

Hey guys,

I have run into a problem putting my rear end back together after changing the pinion and carrier bearings.

Bearing swap was fine, all seated back where they should go. (I think.)

pinion went in ok, then I replaced the Carrier with the original shims. (fairly thick left and right shims) but it was pretty tight - I had to give a couple of taps with the hammer to get the left shim in beween the housing and the carrier bearing outer race. I tightened down the holders and the carrier will not turn. What did I F-up?

I did not change the gears, just swapped bearings so I would think all shims should stay the same. Could my pinion depth be wrong and binding with the ring gear? The pinion preload felt Ok before I put in the carrier, maybe even a little stiff actually.

If I put a big wrench on the yoke, I can actually make it move, But I am not sure exactly what's happening here.

This is my only vehicle and I am sort of dead in the water.

Hard to diagnose axle re-assembly errors, but:

If the side bearing races aren't seated properly, it will cause the dif housing to sit crooked in the housing and be extremely hard to turn.

With a full shim set, the dif should be very tight going in-the whole shim/bearing/race stack will be about 10-30 thousands wider then the dif housing. This is normal to provied pre-load to the side bearings. That's why pros use a case spreader to get the dif in and out.

Did you actually set the pre-load on the pinion, or did you just tighten the yoke nut? Don't know the exact spec for a -35, but most crush sleeve applications are between 10 and 20 inch-pounds rotational force(that's about 1-1.5 ft-lbs) Getting that too tight could be part/all of your problem. Note that it takes something like 210 Ft/lbs on the yoke nut to crush the sleeve. If you have no pre-load on the pinion bearings(crush sleeve not crushed) the pinion can slide sideways and lock up. If it's over-tightened, it'll be hard/impossible to spin. Did you use a new crush sleeve? Old crush sleeve/new bearings can also cause problems(it can work, but sometimes it doesn't)
If the pinion is OK:
Could you have mixed the side gear shims up? Try re-installing the dif with no shims. carefully push/pry the dif away from the pinion, get all the slack out of it, and check your backlash. 'Should be fairly wide, and everything should move smoothly. If everything works like this, re-assemble again with the smaller shim on the ring gear side, and check your lash again. Note: even though they may look the same, the odds of both side gear shims being the same size are low. Most of the time, you need a dial caliper of a micrometer to tell the difference. If you can't tell the difference, and can't measure them, you can try putting each shim in turn on the ring gear side and checking the lash while applying pressure to the opposite side of the dif(pushing the ring gear away from the pinion)

The real bad news is, without a full understanding of how a dif goes together and how to adjust it, you may end up having to pay someone to straighten this out.

Good luck.

Here's a video of setting the pinion pre-load on a ford 8.8. 'Different axle, but it's the same procedure for your axle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8APYO2sZyJU

so, I removed the pinion nut to check to see if it was the same height as my old one. It was, and I think I am 1.5- 2 threads short tightening the nut compared with before I started. I did not go any tighter because the pinion was starting to get stiff and it was feeling very tight. (at least 175 which is the limit on my torque wrench.)

Could I be underestimating the force needed to crush the crush sleeve? does the pinion get tight before the crush and loosen up after?

Also, If I pull the carrier brackets, it turns If I rotate the pinion yoke - but feels rough and jumpy as shit.

any Ideas?

With the dif carrier/ring gear out of the housing, the pinion should be free to turn. The pinon shouldn't get tight before the pinion nut run's up tight against the yoke. Watch the video. You should have a little slop just like in the video when the pinion nut goes down tight.

From the "rough and jumpy" description you're giving, it almost sounds like the pinion is jamming against the ring gear when you install the dif.
2 possible causes:
-the pinion is to far "out" in the housing, causing it to jam up hard on the ring gear
- the ring gear is too far over (to close to the pinion) and again, jamming aginst the pinion.

Did you try re-assembly with no side bearing shims?

pinion turns free without the carrier in place

I managed to get another 1/4 turn on the pinion nut, still turns ok, that's why I am wondering if I really did give it enough force to crush the sleeve.

no shims, it turns but obvioulsy extremely floppy.

I swapped shims side to side, I think it's even tighter.

These are thick shims - like 1/8" and one on each side.

Well, not sure.

As long as there's no slop in the pinion, that's probably not the problem. Don't over-tighten the pinion nut just to check it. I don't think that would be productive, and would just ruin the crush sleeve.

I'm out of ideas without being able to look at it. Hopefully someone can chime in with a useful suggestion,...

Dumb question, but: are you sure the pinion bearing(inner one, pressed on the shaft) completely seated?

Inner pinion bearing is what I am going to check now. I was trying everything else I could think of first because like a dummy I put the oil seal in before test-fitting everything 100%.

Usually I would put the pinion and carrier together with the old crush sleve and nut to make sure it's close to start with, but I was just doing bearings. I didn't expect a gear setup issue. I have changed out bearings in the past and not had this problem.

oh, also checked gear pattern. It indicates pinion too deep in the mesh. If it turns out I just didn't seat the inner bearing properly I am going to kick myself in the ass so hard I will probably loose a few teeth.

Found my problem.

All my bearings are fine and seated correctly - I have found an uncrushable crush sleeve. How much can I get for this on ebay?

I put well over over 300 lbs on it and it will NOT crush.

Getting another one to try again tonight.

On the bright side, I did manage to get everything apart and diagnosed without damaging the oil seal. Should be fine when reassembled if I don't pound it when I slide the pinion back in.

New crush sleeve from NAPA solved my problem - I finally have a quiet rear end.

The one that came in the timken kit just will NOT crush. I didn't believe it so I tried again. This time I borrowed a buddy's BIG torque wrench and was putting 400 pounds on it - Nothing.

New sleeve worked perfectly.

One other weird thing, in the same Timken rebuild kit a tube of Permatex Blue was included for sealing up the cover. I punched the foil seal and what came out was clear silicone. I though WTF? I pulled out another new tube I had sitting on the shelf with exactly the same packaging and punched it open - it was the regular blue RTV that I know and love.

I think I'm cursed - just happy the bearings were right.