Solid pinion spacer - Someone screwed up (1 Viewer)

[Spook50]

In the process of dialing in the preload for my pinion bearings on the diff rebuild (factory gears good and being reused; pinion depth shims already dialed in), but even without spacer shims in place it holds the bearings way too proud of the races and is giving me 0.05" of movement. I double checked the packaging for the spacer, and it's labeled 2.170" long, per Nitro's packaging and label. I got curious and took my caliper to it.......it's 2.190", the measurement for POST-1990 9.5" differentials.

Needless to say this is NOT a pleasant discovery to make when I'm in the process of buttoning it up and have to be at work tomorrow, after having worked on this the whole weekend making sure I do it RIGHT.

Ironic part is I ordered a pre-1990 from Marlin and was mistakenly sent a post-1990 part, which I shipped back to them and rush ordered a pre-1990 direct from Nitro.

What I ended up doing was installing 0.05" of shims under the "forward" pinion bearing race and then turning the spacer down to 2.168" and deburring it. I'm going to compensate for the shift by reducing the pinion depth shims that're on the pinion itself now and yet again checking the gear pattern.

Word to anyone putting in a solid pinion spacer: Double check the length of the spacer you get, no matter what the packaging says!!

 

[poptart]

Well that sucks but I’m glad you don’t have to take a sick day tomorrow lol

 

[tmxmotorsports]

In the process of dialing in the preload for my pinion bearings on the diff rebuild (factory gears good and being reused; pinion depth shims already dialed in), but even without spacer shims in place it holds the bearings way too proud of the races and is giving me 0.05" of movement. I double checked the packaging for the spacer, and it's labeled 2.170" long, per Nitro's packaging and label. I got curious and took my caliper to it.......it's 2.190", the measurement for POST-1990 9.5" differentials.

Needless to say this is NOT a pleasant discovery to make when I'm in the process of buttoning it up and have to be at work tomorrow, after having worked on this the whole weekend making sure I do it RIGHT.

Ironic part is I ordered a pre-1990 from Marlin and was mistakenly sent a post-1990 part, which I shipped back to them and rush ordered a pre-1990 direct from Nitro.

What I ended up doing was installing 0.05" of shims under the "forward" pinion bearing race and then turning the spacer down to 2.168" and deburring it. I'm going to compensate for the shift by reducing the pinion depth shims that're on the pinion itself now and yet again checking the gear pattern.

Word to anyone putting in a solid pinion spacer: Double check the length of the spacer you get, no matter what the packaging says!!

Wouldn't this tighten up the preload making it less. Maybe i am misunderstanding.

 

[tmxmotorsports]

When i say less from 5 to like 2 or zero

 

[Spook50]

Wouldn't this tighten up the preload making it less. Maybe i am misunderstanding.

Yes it would, but the spacer was too long initially to even allow the bearings to contact the races, so I had to turn it down to the proper length so that I could get an actual preload and then dial it in with the spacers.