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okay, got it all out last night and tore down (as far as I am going into it). There was about an eight of an inch of endplay in the passenger side yoke and a little less on the drivers side. Popped the snap rings off and slid the yokes out. Nearest I an measure with my Garbage Freight calipers is there is about .168 on the yoke between the snap ring and the end. The other is about the same. I got several different reading and ended up stacking feeler gauges to come to this conclusion.
Gary, you think I need to order new yokes?
The case looked to be in good shape otherwise, no chunks of metal or water in the oil, no teeth missing, etc.
From the white silcone on the housing it has been into before.
You have a stock posi setup there. Since you have about .168" on the yoke face dimension, the replacement of the yoke will not tighten that up much. Rebuilt yokes measure about .180-187" so you'll cut down the endplay maybe .020 at the most and that will still leave another .100" of play.
The yokes should be case hardened to about .030" as a rule, so that means you're about 2/3 of the way through it. Once it wears through the case hardening they will wear quickly. This may take a while depending on how much you drive the car.
Many times replacing sloppy yokes with a set of rebuilt or new one still leaves way too much endplay, often over .040"
The only way you're going to get the endplay down to the .005-.010 I set them to is to tune the posi and that is a whole different story then replacing yokes/seals.
You can decide if you want to drop the extra $200 or so on yokes and be pretty much where you are or just install new seals and drive the car. If you really have a rear suspension alignement issue from the yokes then you can take the next step.
If it were my car or a diff I was doing then I would tune the posi and fit new yokes and be done with it.
thanks for the advice, if I am just throwing good yokes after bad. I guess I will just replace the seals for now and start hunting somebody around here to rebuild it that knows what they're doing. Its not a daily driver so its not going to get run that much. Finding a shop here is getting to be tough nowadays, all the oldtimers have gone and there are no specialty shops around anymore. I had read your other posts in DC and its nice to have guys like you to help us shade tree guys out! Thanks!!
You can take out most of the play by shimming between the gear and C clip. Finding the shims with the correct inner diameter is a bit difficult. But as mentioned earlier once you have worn through the case hardened tip they wear out very fast.
If you just want to shim your old stub axles I have the shims in .010 .015 .020 and so on. We also have new stub axles, hardened tipped stub axles and rebuilt differentials. Give me a call at 972-243-3838
If I understand the process right, the inner side of the yoke spindles has about an 1/8" hardened area that has worn away. Once I get below .170 from the snap ring to the inner end, I have effectively worn away the hardened part of the yoke. The only way to fix this is to replace the yokes. But that is not going to fix the problem since the whole assembly probably needs a tune up. I just wish I knew how to do it myself or someone local I could trust. I am going to start visiting a few of the tranny shops around but over the past few years there's not too many of them left.
If I understand the process right, the inner side of the yoke spindles has about an 1/8" hardened area that has worn away. Once I get below .170 from the snap ring to the inner end, I have effectively worn away the hardened part of the yoke. The only way to fix this is to replace the yokes. But that is not going to fix the problem since the whole assembly probably needs a tune up. I just wish I knew how to do it myself or someone local I could trust. I am going to start visiting a few of the tranny shops around but over the past few years there's not too many of them left.
Shimming the yokes is not going to resolve a sloppy posi clutch setup fellows. Some guys have welded the ends of the yokes, I have never down that myself.
To do the job right requires time and effort but it is worth it in the long run.
Read all of gary's posts on the diffys, and read em again. Then ask him for his paper. Then if you feel you can rebuild it your self, get the parts from Gary and he is just a phone call away to help you. If you feel you cant do it send it to him.
When I got to the point of pullen mine out I read every thing I could find on weather I could do this myself or weather I would have to send it out. After reading his post I went after it. FELT LIKE GARY WAS IN MY BACK POCKET WITH HIS INFO.
Very happy knowing that I had proper instruction and did it myself. Also if anything goes wrong its my *** I have to kick.