Rear End Side Play

Maybe I can help. If the back wheels are on the ground and your transmission is in neutral and you rotate the pinion at the yoke you will be able to feel the pinion to crown gear clearance, if you're gentle, but it will be very little almost inperceptable. To correctly measure the gear to gear backlash you really have to have a dial indicator on the gear itself to be able to measure the
.010" (if that's what's called for) clearance or backlash. Trying to measure that same clearance by turning the wheels is impossible because as you turn the tire you will be taking up any clearance in the shaft splines to side gear, the planatary gears (depending on you differential) then the crown and pinion gears. Either method of measuring is not accurate and as we used to say not recordable.

Terry