I recently had some major issues with my ford 9" carrier, as I got sold a piece of junk (make shift posi unit, which failed at 500 miles). Well, on to the next venture, I bought another carrier. I ended up purchasing another carrier, this time it has a new yukon limited slip with new 4.11's. The guy who set it up has done many ford 9"s. I threw it in the housing just to see how it felt, and it ALSO feels a little strange. Maybe this is normal, but here's what's going on: When you turn the yoke back and forth to hear the backlash, you hear more than one gear "click" when it hits. I showed it to a gearing engineer here at work, and he said maybe it is the bearings re seating/??? But he was also stumped. More strangely, if you rotate back and forth, you get about 1 ring tooth, or maybe 5-10 degrees on the yoke, of a turn with relatively easy turning. After that (if you are continuing in the same rotation), it tightens up. It will continue to be tight until you stop and reverse the rotation, then repeat the ease of turn for 1 tooth. This is NOT the slop from backlash. You can watch the gears mesh and begin turning together while it is easy to turn, but then it "tightens up". Could this be slop in the pinion bearing? I would assume that it should always be tight, regardless. Gear engineer was also confused by this. With a preload, theoretically, the yoke should be tight to turn from any rotation.
sounds like the crush sleeve was over torqued and the pinion gear is digging into the ring gear. is there pattern marking compound on the ring gear so you can see where the pinion is riding? if not i would get some and check it before i installed it.
The pattern was on the gears when I got it, and it looks great. But yes, almost sounds like a bearing issue. I'm going to a friends after work to use his beam torque wrench to check the bearing preload. No wonder why I'm a mopar guy, ford parts hate me.
Did you also through the axles in. If not through them in and see what it dose. they do have some back lash which sometime seem to be a lot until you put the oil in. The tighten part that bothers me. Add the axle and see if it goes away, it could be the spider gear binding up without the axles in. If you still have the issue I would say the preload was not set. It a new rear did you happen to see any blueing on the ring gear.
It is definitely clicking a lot while turning in one direction. But, as soon as I hold my finger against the ring gear to act as a load, the clicking goes away. So just as you said Hot40rod, the axles would probably change the noise completely. I was just concerned with why it was clicking, or sounding like a lot of contact internally without a load.
The Jalopy Journal
