Put the stack between 2 blocks to measure, you just need enough room to get to the bottom. If everything's reasonably clean, like if the axle oil has been changed regularly, a good wipe down should be all that's needed. Spray off the oil with brake cleaner if you don't like the mess.

The dial/digital caliper slides, a micrometer is the "c-clamp" that clicks.

 

Well, still at it here...When I measure my stack (L1) to determine clearance, it measures .01mm OVER the limit. I chose the thickest of the used disks I had to choose from, some still measure new or slightly new thicknesses, though! I added two used friction disks to my SE's stack (obviously removing two of the original friction plates) and planned on reusing the conical springs and thrust washers(measurements included in pics).
As far as L2 clearance, it measures .68mm, so should I use two new oversized(1.8mm) thust washers? This would decrease it to ~.26mm.
What's the danger of the L1 clearance not being in the positive? It will be too tight?
What effects does a tighter clearance for L2 induce?

 

bump?

 

Come on guys, I'd like to wrap this up before winter...Help PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE???

 

Allright, so no one here can help me...Where do I need to go for help? I'm more than willing to learn, but I need someone's help!!!

 

Well, never did get any help, read everything I could...Finally put the carrier assembly back together recently after swapping in some slighty more used disks, as far as I could tell, both the L1 and L2 measurements fell about exactly in the center of the FSM's specs. I tried and tried to get accurate measurements of the stack laid up, but it's damn near impossibly all by yourself. I tried taping up two sides, measuring the other two, then swapping...Tried opening the jaws of a vice and resting the assembly on top, and measuring, then rotating and measuring again...Tried measuring all individually and trying to correlate that with actual measurements...Was never happy or confident in the results, so finally just put everything back together.
Now my question is, when the left and right halves of the carrier are screwed back together, should you be able to move(slide them around in a small circumference with a small tool) the copper thrust washers at each end? Just to be sure I didn't pinch one 0f the thrust washers during the reassembly, I poked around at them after it was assembled, and I can move each of them around. I guess with the force required to screw it back together, and my measurements; I expected them to not move. Can anyone helpfully comment?

 

Yes can move both around when the unit is assembled. The bronze washers are only there for when the plates have worn enough for the side gears to push far enough out and they have something to thrust against. By the time you get to there the lsd is probably almost doing nothing anyway. Once the side gears thrust against the washers there is basically no more lock up of the plates making it an open diff. If pressed hard enough the washers will start to wear and allow lock up but a lot less than if the side gears were not thrusting against the washers. I was told once that you could actually take the bronze washers out completely and it would help lock the lsd up more but I think they serve a purpose to let you know when its time for a tighten up. If anything you want to try and keep the side gears away from the bronze washers as much as possible to give the LSD a little more life but I have never rebuilt an LSD without them.

 

In my opinion you are over thinking it. In my drift/auto-x car I have always taken the stack apart, cleaned it all, and re-assembled with a shim made from the wall of a soda can against the case end(after the last cone washer). On a worn stock lsd, the can shim typically puts you about 45-60lbs breakaway. Thicker cans (some energy drinks) or double shims gets you over 100lbs breakaway. It may seem silly, but I have done it to probably 12-15 different diffs over the last 10 years and old school racers and toyota guys have been doing it for way longer.

Isaac

 

Yes, probably am overthinking it. Just want to be sure and try to do it right the first time. Since I'm putting this carrier back into the rear housing it came from and with same pinion housing, do I need to mess with the pinion at all? Preload, height, etc.? Im hoping not...I know I'll have to attemp backlash adj.

 

If you haven't molested the pinion shaft/nut and you are re-using the ring gear that originally mated to it then all you have to set is lash by adjusting the bearing carries on each end of the diff.

Isaac

 

Sounds good to me! What about "drag" for the pinion? I know this rear had ~112k miles on it but I never drove the car. When disassembled, everything inside was hardly worn at all. Thank you sir.

 

Well, finallly ready for the backlash adjustment...Asked about 40 places until I gave it to my cousin to take it to where he works(I guess they do truck rear ends). I gave him the printed out relevant pages of the FSM. Only talked with him briefly on the phone after it was done...He claimed it had "a tight spot" and they couldn't get it close to factory specs, so they set it at one thousands of an inch...After I talked with him, I looked at the fsm, and isn't the spec around four thousands of an inch? Anyways...I really cleaned and scoured the mating surfaces of the ring gear and carrier when I reassembled, but still had to use tightening of some of the bolts to draw it(the ring gear) down completely...Possible a shaving or something got in there? CAN you set a used diff (about ~120k miles on it) back to factory specs? I've asked around, and people always say..."Oh, that's a really tight spec...I might set it to 5-6 thousands instead." Is there any reason I shouldn't be able to set the backlash to factory specs? Any help is appreciated, this has been a LONG LONG process...-

 

11 months in the making...Could I PLEASE get some help here??? Pretty Please?

 

Truck rear ends have a looser backlash, that could be why some say lean toward .006 in.

Have you put marking compound on the gear and pinion? The contact pattern is more essential than getting the backlash perfect.

^All that is after you've attached the ring gear to the carrier. 51-61 ft-lb of torque is what the FSM specifies. Did you have to torque more than that to get the surfaces to mate? And if you used red loctite it's going to be a bitch separate.

 

Thanks for response. There was some blue marking stuff on the teeth of the ring gear in four places, and my cousin said it was a good pattern, but I was concerned about the "tight spot" he said it had. AND since I've never been able to talk to him again and get "real" numbers of specs they actually set it at, I took the ring gear back off today (yes I did use red locktite when I reassembled it, but luckily it came apart with an impact wrench) and REALLY scoured the surfaces and blew dry, and wiped with lint-free wipes and acetone. Put it back on and torqued to ~58 ft/lbs. I thought I had an appointment with a guy today for him to show me how to set backlash, but I couldn't get ahold of him, and he's about an hour 1/2 away so that fell through. My area is TERRIBLE for finding people to do these things...

 

bump

 

Finally found a guy about an hour away that I took my diff. to, to get the backlash set. He was kind enough to do it when I brought it (also wouldn't accet any payment), in his own garage, and set it to ~.005" instead of the fsm ~.004". He only checked on two opposite teeth. I offered gear marking compound, he used wd40...He said it felt real smooth and was gonna be real quiet...Any danger/ill effects of it being at least .001" out of spec.?

 

bite the bullet, install it and take it for a spin. you're over analyzing it.

 

Over analyze,,,me? Yeah probably, but I'm trying to do everything right the first time and not have to do it again, cause I don't have the time, place, or resources.
I like to do my "cooking by the book" as Stephie would say...

 

Well, I tried to mate the pinion housing(with diff installed) to the rear axle housing this past weekend. I bought some grey rtv gasket maker and ran it around the flange and around bolt holes on the rear axle housing, then tried to mate the pinion housing to it...It will NOT fit. I tried and tried for almost two hours. I know for an absolute fact that this pinion housing came off of this rear axle housing. What possible reason would there be for them not to fit together anymore?!?!? The fsm and other's tut.'s don't really make any mention of this part. In fact, FSM doesn't tell you anything, not even any torque specs, or if there is a gasket there, or anything. I don't remember having any trouble separating them in the first place. I had the axle housing laying on the floor, trying to drop the pinion housing right into it. I can only ever get one side to sit flush, never the whole way around it. It's only one side or the other. What am I missing, here???

 

All but one bolt is long. So near the flange find this bolt hole. When your installing it, the long bolt will be towards bottom left if your facing the flange. Also, use a 100 grit sandpaper to make both mating surfaces rough. This will ensure that RTV will stay. i thought about your project while doing a swap last saturday.

 

It has to go on squarely, but if you're doing it by hand the diff will want to move direction when installing since all the weight is at one end. To get it to mate flat on the axle housing, I just started a bolt on either side and tightened them down by hand.

 

Well, the long bolt was stripped out so I installed a helicoil there...Don't want to to try to get it to mate by tightening bolts, I'm sure they will also strip. IT IS TIGHT. If I try to go squarely on, it just hangs about ~1/2" off of the surface. Then, if I tilt it one way or the other(towards either axle hole) I can get one side down flush, but the other is about ~3/4" up in the air. I twisted it, tried one side at a time, tried squarely, tried rubber mallet, tried brass rod and hand sledge, tried everything...If it will somehow go together this way, I don't see how you can keep your gasket making stuff where you want it and not just smeared EVERYWHERE as mine was after about 10 seconds of trying. I don't get it, I know the diff. is assembled correctly, I know I'm trying to fit it the right way(ring gear on the side with the pocket in the housing, and the long bolt by the drain plug) and the only time anything was out of my sight, I had the axle housing powdercoated, so it saw about 400F. How the hell do people do this with the rear still installed in the car?!?!?!Would it help to try it that way instead of the open face of the housing facing upwards? What could of possibly happened, or what am I missing? Thanks for the help, I'd like to get this done before the world ends...

 

Idk but i never had the above mentioned issues

 

ANYBODY have ANY idea why they will not go back together???