I could really use some help here, I'm stumped. This is the first time I've had a rear apart so I'm not sure what's normal and what isn't, which isn't helping.
Short version: I can't seem to tighten the pinion nut enough to seat the bearings let alone crush the crush collar.

The truck has always had a whine in the rear since I bought it 13 years ago. I've only done 30k miles since then, it's just my weekend yard work/home depot run truck.
When I bought it I knew there were some shenanigans afoot with the rear because besides the whine, one axle flange had a couple broken bolt heads and fresh RTV sticking out around it, and the other side had some bolts that were regular hardware store bolts and also fresh RTV sticking out.

The pinion seal was leaking and I had a spun carrier bearing. Bought all new bearings and races.
After taking the driveshaft off, I noticed the pinion shaft could be moved in and out around .050" or so, about a sixteenth, as if the nut was not tight, but it was. It was very tight.
There was one shim between the pinion gear itself and the inner bearing. It is about .035". It was put back when the new bearing was pressed on.
There was only one other shim, but it's not really a shim I guess, it pushes against the seal by the outer bearing. To make a seal I would suppose.

If you are still reading this far thank you!

I installed the new bearings and races, tightened the pinion nut, and still have the same condition, about .050 of in and out play. Never having tightened a crush collar before, I figured I had to go more. So I got a floor jack under my breaker bar and jacked it up until I was just about jacking up the whole truck and the nut still wouldn't go any more. I bought a harbor freight 1/2" impact which is supposed to be 1100 ft lbs (Earthquake XT) and borrowed a big *** compressor and hammered the hell out of it, same thing. I watched people do it on youtube with an impact and they say how hard it is to crush the crush collar, but they go braap braap braap and it starts to get tight, and they say "time to be careful because crush collar etc...". I did a lot more than that. I'm convinced I'm bottoming out somewhere.

So I look at the shop manual and it only shows that one shim between the inner bearing and pinion gear (see pic attached). But if I look at Dennys Driveshaft's website it shows shims between the bearing race and the housing (#'s 3 and 4).
If you've had this rear apart before and someone wasn't in there monkeying around before you, can you tell me which is it? Where do the shims go? They also show shims by the crush collar, but I assume it's either/or right? Not supposed to be both?

I just found in the shop manual (thanks you guys!!) it's supposed to be 5.375" between ring gear centerline and top of the pinion gear. They also have a tool to measure that which i can't find but luckily I'm a machinist and have access to CNC's and Wire EDM's at work so I'll make a tool to measure that this week, but knowing shim locations would be a big help.

 

Shims go between the bearing, and the gear itself. So long as you can get the correct pinion depth, and still have the bearing completely on the part it presses onto, shims behind the race aren't required.

The crush sleeve can take some serious torque to actually get it to crush. They do make crush sleeve eliminator kits, and I highly recommend going that route.

 

To test my theory that something was bottoming out before getting to the crush sleeve, I just went outside and tried it without the crush sleeve. All the slop was taken up! It is the crush sleeve I’m bottoming out on. Holy **** those things take an incredible amount of pressure to begin crushing. i may take it to work and use the hydraulic press to get it started lol. Wow. Can’t believe I haven’t pulled the threads out of the nut.

 

Just to update the thread, I did get the crush sleeve to crush using a 4 foot cheater bar. After it crushed I went little by little checking the rotational torque with a borrowed inch pound torque wrench and stopped at 20 in lbs.
Using the shop manual from here and youtube I was able to put all new bearings and seals in the rear. Just got back from my test drive, I would say dead quiet except there's the tiniest little whine when coasting. With the radio on low you wouldn't hear it.
Very happy, thanks for this place, and HeyYou for keeping this section alive!

 

Awesome.

 

Yeah they take a good bit lol when I regear my 60/80 I'm doing a crush sleeve eliminator