1998 Dodge Ram 1500 Sport - 4WD - 5.9 - 46RE
Former dealer tech here, rebuilt tons of 9.25s, this one on my own rig on jackstands and its kicking my butt.

I've always used OEM parts and this is my first foray into the aftermarket - maybe my last? I dunno. Using a Yukon Master rebuild kit, Yukon Duragrip carrier, Revolution 3.55 Gears.

This truck has been run hard and put away wet. Tearing it down, I found the pinion "clunk clunk" loose after pulling the driveshaft. Tore it down without incident, when I start putting it together, the big bearing race on the pinion grabs the pocket a bit but then falls in. I check the Timken # and it matches the old race. I peen the housing (no way I'm putting a new axle housing in this turd) and put some sleeve retainer on the race and drive it home. I check the race is all the way in with a mirror all the way around the pocket.

The ring gear and pinion bearing install goes without a hitch. I use the .032 shim recommendation and check a pattern. It's all heel on the Coast and barely on the toe of the drive. This is where it gets ugly. I try shims from the factory (.028) all the way down to .019 up to .045. Each time I'm not putting a crush sleeve, I'm just running the pinion nut down until there's a enough preload to know the pinion isn't going anywhere. The pattern is barely moving at ALL. I have quadruple checked the bearings, this is a non-ZF housing for SURE. Between calling Revolution several times and even checking with Randy's. I've checked a pattern at anywhere from .004-.007 backlash with each shim I try. I'm left with trying maybe .055-.060 on the pinion shim.

1. Anyone else run into this with advice?
2. With maybe .035 extra shim behind the bearing, I'm starting to worry that maybe the bearing won't grab the pinion enough?

Thanks in advance!

 

Given your experience, I'm assuming you've done this w/o the crush sleeve so many times you're convinced its not a factor. I think II'd be tempted to play elimination. Of course with it being so loose when you started - dunno if it'll work. If you have the old parts, I'd test the old gears and old diff with the new bearings.... If you can get the pinion and ring to mesh up, then you've probably got a gear set or diff issue..... if not, then its probably the bearings or the carrier. Then you could swap the new diff on the old ring, and see what happens... Or easy enough to buy another set of pinion bearings. Carrier wise, junk yard open (non limited slip) carrier would be my choice (due to the clip failure on limited slip).

 

my experience is with using the factory scooter block to tell me the what pinion depth shim to use with factory gear variance which after doing so many I stopped pulling patterns on it was so bang on. With these gears that don’t have variance and the manufacturer stating to start with .032 and check pattern, my thriftiness led me to not use the crush sleeve. As any good tech, nothing went in the trash until the car left the bay good, so I can retry with the factory ring & pinion on the new diff and slowly go from there I guess. After reviewing some videos on YouTube about patterns I might just shim it to the moon and send it. I can’t get my money back on the installed stuff so if it launches, it launches. 🤷🏽‍♂️ I’m so glad I ate ramen for a month to buy the clamshell bearing puller in my 20s. It’s paid off quite a bit on this job!

 

Well, I got confirmation from Revolution that the gears I have are the gears for this application. I checked runout of the carrier (0.0003) and checked the tone wheel to the ABS sensor bore and it's dead on. I'm convinced the Yukon carrier is good too. I suppose the old bearing race spun a little material off of the pocket? I'm not checking that because, sleeve retainer. Looks like my next post will be after I stick .055 of shim to see if the pattern comes down the gear face some. Right now they're off the top land of the drive toe and coast heel.

 

Does the carrier need to move more to the right?

 

Was just about to ask about the carrier. Also don't forget that when you crush that sleeve it will move towards the front of the vehicle

 

That looks bad even by my standards ! Did you happen to take a pattern before you tore it down ? With the issues you found with the thrust side pinion bearing it might have looked bad before. In any case I'd take a really close look at the ring&pinion and carrier and compare them to the original parts. Just because the parts numbers check out doesn't mean they are manufactured correctly.

 

Well, I got fed up and slammed that thing together with the factory shim and factory gears on the Yukon carrier. The carrier’s good - I checked the ABS tone ring and it’s dead center in the bore. I checked the pattern and it was garbage. With the .028 that it came with, I needed a thinner one. I ran out of crush sleeves so I said screw it. I went to put in the axle bearings and the right rear fell in to the bore too. This housing has just had it. I drove it and it sings like a canary and growls bad on coast. I’ve got other things to attend to and need to take stuff to the dump, siding projects, etc. I’m going to look for a junk yard axle that’s hopefully in a bit better shape. I can always swap the yoke and run a different axle I figure and it’ll be way easier to build in the garage instead of on my back on jack stands.

anyone have a 9.25 axle they want to get rid of in Washington? 😆 any suggestions on a junk yard just south of seattle?

 

Update: After quite the search, I ended up on a long drive with a couple buddies from work and extracted an axle drum-to-drum from a Pick-n-pull in Tumwater for $230! I shoulda started with this option! It was quite the search though. When to Lakewood, scoped out a decent one, then checked Arlington, which had a lot of axle-less trucks. When I went back to lakewood a week later the one I checked out was GONE! I rolled the dice going all the way to Tumwater but it paid off. It's running great in my truck now. I just need to put the posi I put in the original one into this one!