8.8 swap

Deceus said
Had some serious issues with the Ratech solid spacer. long story short I put the spacer in with no shims and it was still too loose to get any pinion bearing preload. The oddiest part of it all: we threw in the old crush sleeve that was longer (.438in vs .420in) and was able to get a decent preload. For those that don't know, the thicker crush sleeve should have been even looser than the spacer. No idea what was going on there but I'm buying another one from Yukon and if that gives me trouble I'll use the damn crush sleeve.

I figured I'd do a follow-up on this for future readers. I bought a second solid spacer from Ratech since the Yukon one was three times the price. This spacer was smaller this time around, I wish I had the exact measurement to compare but it was significantly smaller since it took 3 shims to match the length of the old one by itself. I started with that and worked my way down. I didn't get any preload until I was down to the last shim and it was only 4-5 in/lbs. Fortunately for my sanity I threw just the spacer in and ended up with right around 30 in/lbs of preload. I'm going to stick with that.

Moral of the story: Ratech solid spacers seem to be hit or miss. The only way I would have gotten any preload off the first spacer is if I had shaved it down. This would explain the mix reviews I seen on Summit before buying it. Keep this in mind if you're choosing this route for convenience, it may not be very convenient at all and cost you a lot more than a crush sleeve or 2.