Ring and pinion install problems

[99XLT-Explorer]

hey guys im pretty frustrated today at my rear end and i got everything ready to button up and i get my pinion preload good and i slap the carrier in and its so bound up it wont even turn so i take the carrier back out and try to get some more backlash and its better but still wont turn this is with one small shim on the pinion so now today i took out that shim and pressed the bearing back on in hopes that it will be good now but heres my thoughts wtf am i supposed to do if that dont fix it? i mean i could tell that the pinion was wayy to deep and was no where near the middle of the ring teeth so will that little tiny shim not being there make the difference? bc at this point how the hell is it supposed to get right when you cant possible get the pinion any shallower or is there?
the way i can tell that the pinion is too deep is that when i slid the carrier out i could spin everything smoothly

any help is appreciated at this point im doing them in my tech class so i only get so much time to do it everyday

 

[delexploder]

What have you replaced

 

[99XLT-Explorer]

ring and pinion and all bearings and races

 

[delexploder]

Ok im not sure of your experience so dont take offence , but please try to explain what and how all the way through your install, like do you have a dial indicator what are you doing with the side shims ect..

 

[99XLT-Explorer]

this is my first but im in my auto service tech class and we have all the tools and i havent gotten to where i can check any of that but i mean idk how far off the carrier shims are but i think that the pinion is too deep i have already removed the shim between gear and inner bearing but havent put the pinion back in but the thing that makes me think that its pinion depth is i was able to turn the carrier and pinion with the carrier slid out some

 

[rickybobby]

Did you replace the crush-sleeve? If you did and didnt crush it far enough (improper torque/pre-load) that will cause your issue.

 

[99XLT-Explorer]

yes i replaced it and i torqued it to 250 ftlbs lol took all 145 lbs of me too lol and could the carrier shims be that far off that it would cause this? cause i could try to do a drastic change in those tomorrow?

 

[delexploder]

Yes, especially if you got your sides mixed up, I would start over and try to shim every thing the way it was factory on the pinion and then play with the Side shims ,when we do rears we use a tray to lay everything on in order and we punch mark everything we can and mark the thickness on the shims with a sharpee, all that said also make sure your ring and pinion match because we have seen alot of problems like that over the past couple of years,

 

[99XLT-Explorer]

when i had it where nothing would turn i had everything stock it only had 2 big ones on each side and i put both back in each side on the correct side so i think im going to start over and play with the carrier shims