Never ending axle service (2 Viewers)

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Well... I'm back at it. Here's hoping for better luck this time around. Incidentally, if anyone is driving past Ryan's shop this week on the way to the meeting, let me know.
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Do the bottom shims actually do anything? Apparently all my shims are on the bottom and none on the top. That can't be right.
 
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Do the bottom shims actually do anything? Apparently all my shims are on the bottom and none on the top. That can't be right.
I'd say you did something wrong if that is the case. The way I see it, the idea is for the shims to do double duty, one job is to center the knuckle, the second job is to adjust proper preload on the trunnion bearings.
 
DS was way worse where I had all the shims on the bottom. PS was better, I could still discern the greenish color of the bearing grease in the hub and on the spindle. DS it was all gray. On the PS I had shims on both top and bottom.

Couldn't tell on wear on the axle seal. I'll look again tomorrow. I just popped then out and dropped them in the tray.
 
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You should not have all your shims on one side.
I came up with numbers that had all my shims on the bottom. I did the math a couple of times also. I was miss reading a step. That put all the shims on the bottom.
 
So now that I have both sides broken down I'd like to swap the front 3rd. Are there any tricks to doing this? I've never done it before.
 
Will the 3rd stay on the studs of the axle after all the nuts are off or do I need to be ready for 70 pounds of metal to fall off when the last nut comes off and I break the seal of the factory FIPG.
 
Also, what's the yellow paint called that you use to test a R&P mesh pattern? And do you think I can get it at Napa or Advanced?
 
Success. Cleaning that gasket off was a pain in the ass. So do I use a gasket again or fipg? Someone mentioned fipg instead of the gasket but I can't remember if it was a reliable source.

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I doubt you'll find the yellow marking compound locally. You can probably get Prussian Blue at Napa which would work but is harder to read. I probably have a tube of yellow I can send home with you. I don't use the ones that come in the install kits anymore. I switched to using GM's marking compound. You can get it on Amazon. Make sure you clean around the studs really well. We usually pull them to make sure the entire flange surface is clean.
 
@iptman the shims also set the pre-load to the upper and lower bearings. So they serve the purpose of centering the knuckle & pre-load of the trunions.
 
After much consternation I picked up some Right Stuff grey for the diff assembly. I was going back and forth between the Ultra Grey and the Right Stuff grey. I finally found an old youtube video from Permatex where they clearly state the Right Stuff FIPG is "best" and Ultra X is "better" so that's what I got.

I assume when I tighten the nuts I'm doing it in a cris-cross pattern and maybe even a 2 stage torque, maybe 20 then the final 34?
 

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