Setting up a differential

[sargentrs]

Dropped everything off at the shop to have all the bearings/races pressed in. Getting it back next week. Taking a week off from work, week after next, to put it all back together and install.

[basketcase0302]

You gotta' have someone there with video for the first burnout!
Nothing like positive traction.

[sargentrs]

Oh yeah!

[cdeal28078]

If it is a true locker type deal and not just limited slip the 1st time you take a turn and the steering wheel feels like it wants to turn in your hands to straighten the truck is one weird feeling. When the inside wheel locks in it will do it's best to straighten the truck up. Feels funny the first several times.
On and be very careful your 1st several times in the rain. These trucks are so light in the back they will come around very fast.
I enjoyed my Lock-Rite in two different center chunks and wish I never sold it
Clint

[sargentrs]

Thanks for the tips Clint! I'll be babying it for a while till I get used to it. Been driving her for so long, in her original state, that it's going to be like a totally different truck. Shoot, I've got to get used to the power steering first

[sargentrs]

Ok, so the Powertrax is in the carrier and new ring gear bolts are torqued to spec (see my project thread for the installation). Now the fun part. So I put the carrier, with fresh new bearings, in the housing, added the races and the screw in adjusters. I go to put the caps on and if I seat it on top of the adjusters, the bolts don't line up. If I lift it up and start the bolts, they get hard to turn almost like the caps have closed up a notch. As I ease them down with the bolts, rotating the adjusters slowly as I tighten, the adjuster gets too hard to turn and I still see a gap between the adjuster and the cap. I've screwed in the adjuster with the cap just touching it and made sure I engaged the threads evenly. It turns freely until I get about a couple of turns on the bolts, but still not snugged. I understand that the caps are to be torqued and keep the adjusters from rotating any more but how tight do you need to get them until you can start checking the pinion/ring gear mesh? Anybody done this before? Any experienced help will be invaluable! Thanks!

[67mann]

IIRC.....you'll need to leave them loose until you've got it set and then torq them down and install the keeper..in other words they only wanna be on there for the threads to catch...hope this makes sense
I'm pretty positive thats the way we did mine.....

[sargentrs]

Thanks Jerry! I figured that. They just seemed to get awful hard to turn before the caps came any where near touching the top of the adjuster. Like, as soon as they touched them on the sides. I'll take another stab at it tomorrow.

[70_F100]

Make sure you don't get the caps mixed up from side to side!!

[sargentrs]

Funny you should mention that. What say we just forget my last question.... I went to great pains to make sure I kept the left and right parts together as sets and put the left ones on my left side and the right ones on my right side. I was extremely particular in making sure I didn't get them mixed up. I struggled with those caps and adjusters for an hour then took a closer look. When I set the housing back up on the bench I had rotated it 180*. Note to self...mark the caps and housing.

[Art]

I install the caps and bolts just a bit looser than finger tight. Then I install the threaded adjusters. Be careful not to cross-thread them, it is very easy to do.

Art

[sargentrs]

Thanks for the tip, Art