Since my Detroit TrueTrac came apart and destroyed my rear, I finally got some time to rebuild it. After enough research, it wasn't so bad. I used the Ratech solid spacer instead of the crush sleeve, so it was a little tricky to get the preload right, but I have it at 24in lbs so I'm good there.

The pattern is a little off, but it doesn't make any noise. I think I should try a smaller pinion shim but since it doesn't make noise, I think I'll roll with it for a while.

Drive Side a little towards toe side



Coast Side heeled out. It doesn't look quite this bad in person


Also if you are replacing rear axle bearings, don't let anyone sell you the "repair kit" with the bearing and seal integrated. They do not go all the way in so your axle shafts won't go in far enough to get the C-clips on.

 

Any pics or impressions of the solid spacer?
I bought a spacer kit from Randys and all it was, was a very poor welded tube.
With a lot of slop when fitted over the pinion shaft.
Very poor QC.
I had a neighbour and friend machine me up several different lengths of quality steel spacers for when I do this myself.
Al.

 

I don't think I grabbed any pics of the spacer. It is probably the same one you got from randy's, the Ratech 4109. Quality seemed fine to me and it fit the same as the crush sleeve. I don't have the numbers offhand, but I needed more shims or at least some smaller ones.

I ended up filing it down to get the numbers I needed. There is a very small margin of space where your preload will be in range.

 

Ill check my kit and the numbers.
Yeah, my neighbour machined 3 different length tubes for that very reason.
Plus I have the shims from the kit to fine tune the distance.
Gotta be easier than using that crush sleeve??? Lol.
Cheers for the reply.
Al.

 

Thanks for the pics. It looks awesome