rear end problem

[necromonger]

Hello.I have been working on my truck, brake shoes wheel cyl em brake cables and so on and i noticed way to much back lash in my rear end.can I adjust the back lash on my ring gear or do i have to buy a new set?

[zieg85]

A couple of things could be wrong...  If you are new to the truck and the PO re-geared it they might have not set it up properly.  Indications would be a fairly clean rear end.  If yours is a grease pit caked mess, chances are the pinion bearing is going and it may have been leaking for a while... My $.02

[necromonger]

I will check pinon bearing and see if i can move it up and down.

[zieg85]

One additional thought is that the PO changed the pinion seal and over-tightened the nut, crushing the sleeve more causing excessive backlash...

[Engineer]

Are you sure it is excessive back lash?

There could be many areas of wear that would indicate slop between the pinion, and the wheels.

Some places that wear: differential gears, the cross that the differential gears ride on, axle splines, etc.

There should only be .006" back lash on the ring/pinion. On the GM 14-bolt you can take backlash out by adjusting the spanner nuts that screw into the sides of the housing. Problem with taking lash out of a used set of gears is the fact that the gears have already taken a set to the current backlash.

I have taken backlash out of used gears before without side effects, but you run the risk of making the gear set noisy by changing the mesh of used gears.