trucker

I have some mechanical background, but the differential it is new to me.
I have problem with the front bearing in pinion shaft. I can not take the slack out. I did assembly in order they come out, but still the slack exists.
I went to Jeep dealer service depm. I asked the guy at counter if I am missing something. He told me that I have to have a shims between rear bearing( the larger one) and front bearing. I do have crush sleeve in it.
According to that guy - the shims supposed to push the bearing cap against the bearing. I heard a lot of bull **** story, but this one amazed me.
To my best understanding the bearing cap should be press in and bearing should be push against, not the other way around. He try to sell me the shim pack and I think that he try to sell me a bull ****. Am I right?.
Two Jeep dealers in Jacksonville,Fl. I will go to the another one on Monday and see if they can help me. I can not tight the front bearing.

superj

how many shims were in it already? anytime you put new bearings you are going to have to check the backlash and end play again and also make sure your gear pattern is right. usually, if your first two are good then the third will be good but you have to check it anyways.

not enough or too much, depending on where they are, shims and you can have alot of play which will wear the face on your teeth badly and make it so you have to replace the gears. the opposite will cause your gears to mesh to tightly which will cause a transfer of metal from tooth to tooth and lock your gears up because they don't have the space to allow the oil in for lubrication.

i worked on stuff that work just like differentials in turbine engines, called gear carriers. they are used to transfer power from the starter to the compressor shaft so the starter can turn the compressor during start up. its the exact same set up as in a differential. once you ahve done two or three, its nothing to do them. the problem is having the proper tools to do the work. a proper sized press, c-mics, and the stuff to press everything together and take it apart. sometimes you need depth mics but you can usually get away with out those. use crisco to put it all together and you should be good till you get oil in it

trucker

When I took a part the pinion shaft there was no shims only the crush sleeve.
I read that as long as I am replacing only bearings, but no gears then I do not need to adjust the gears depth. No need for new shims. I wander if someone before me took it apart( the whole front end was from a junkyard) and did not put the shims back, but on the other hand, the yoke was tight.
Now I can not tight the yoke. I do not know of what it is going on. I put new crush sleeve in it, but I do not think that I crush it as I can not get the slack out. In repair manual is stating that I can even re-use the crush sleeve. Since I did not had shims and for this year are two different crush sleeves, I wander if my is too short. I will go back to dealer on Monday and see if they have another. All what I waste is the seal($7).
I need to do the rear too, but until I fix the front I will not work on rear.