Autopsy and 5.29 Yukon Gears into muddenyota's E-locker

This E-locked third had been previously regeared with a set of Yukon 5.29's. The diff had been getting pretty noisy after about 6 months, so Nick pulled it out and dropped it off. The most obvious damage was a couple of broken teeth on the ring gear, the pieces came out with the gear oil.

The diff at this point had zero preload on either the pinion or carrier bearings. Backlash was measured to be .015, much higher than the specified .005 - .008.

The resulting pattern before disassembly:

The adjusters for the carrier were tightend with the hammer and chisel method, resulting in a broken adjuster, and not enough preload on the carrier bearings.

All of the bearings were junk, and one of the carrier bearings was spun.

The ring gear was slightly offset from the holes in the carrier, stripping the threads on the ring gear bolts, which had to be replaced.

After removing the carrier bearings with the proper puller, it was evident that the old bearings previously replaced had been cut off with a saw, leaving marks on the carrier... and you can see where the bearing had spun on the carrier.

Nick dropped off some new Toyota bearings, pinion seal, and a Yukon 5.29 gearset.

The markings on the pinion gear...

Time to start setting it all up...
Having the right tools for the job makes everything easier. This bearing driver fit the oil retaining ring perfectly, making the install a breeze.

Ring gear gets installed and torqued to 75 ft/lbs.

The new bearings were pressed onto the carrier. Loctite sleeve retaining compound was used to keep the new bearing from spinning on the carrier.

The inner pinion bearing was pressed on with .077 pinion shims for the initial pattern check. Never seize was applied to the threads of the adjusting rings...

Initial pattern check with .077 pinion shim. Pinion bearings get 8 lb./in preload with no spacer for the pattern check, backlash is set at .008.

Drive side:

Coast:

Pattern looks good, pinion depth is good, nice contact between the teeth. Tear it back down to install the solid spacer... Two attempts got it to .009 pinion bearing preload. The pinion seal gets greased and installed with a healthy serving of RTV to prevent leaks.

Pinion nut cranked on with red Loctite, then staked (not yet staked in pic).

Upon final install of the carrier, make sure you put the clutch and shift fork into the housing before the carrier, or you'll be taking it back apart.

Final backlash is set at .007 while cranking on the adjsters to set the carrier bearing preload.
Final pattern check...

Drive...

Coast...

Good to go!

And with the Supercharged 3.4 turning 37's I'm sure it will get put to the test!