Today was filled with lots of assembly, measurement, disassembly, re-shim, assembly, measure, repeat. I think I have everything within spec now, and my mesh pattern looks good (to me at least). Tomorrow, I’m going to add an extra 5 thousandths shim to each side of the carrier, and press the real bearings on, then install the real pinion bearings. If all goes well, the new bearings will be close to my setup bearings and I’ll be done with the carrier setup. Picture is of the grade 9 bolts used to hold the ring gear to the pinion. You have to be impressed with grade 9 bolts!
I made this ‘special tool’ today. 3/16″ thick angle. Using it plus the 3-foot cheater bar let me get the required 255 ft-lbs of torque on the pinion nut.
