Loose spider gears

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gilberttitan08

gilberttitan08

Mexican Hillbilly!!!
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Gilroy, Mexifornia.
Came across a clunking/rattle sound coming out of my power wagons 8 1/4 rear end. Opened up the rear end cover and noticed one of my spider gears has 1/8-3/16" of play while the other 3/16"-1/4" of play. How much play are spider gears suppose to have?
 
I never looked up any spec for lash, but when I replaced the trashed 91/4" spider gears in my D150 the new ones (USA standard gear, Randy's R&P house brand) had almost none. Barely a "tink" out of them when rocking the wheels back and forth. Same story when I replaced the ones in the 8 1/4" in my dad's, too bad that didn't fix the clunk his truck had going into reverse. Niether did the new u-joints, the yoke was fine, and the pinion lash was within spec as I recall. Guess it didn't bug him very much, he'd been driving it for 20 years like that.
 
Worn thrust surface on the carrier under the spider gears. I think there is conical stainless washers there (or perhaps they are missing?). You should probably slide the axles out, remove the spiders and investigate.
 
fshd4it said:
I never looked up any spec for lash, but when I replaced the trashed 91/4" spider gears in my D150 the new ones (USA standard gear, Randy's R&P house brand) had almost none. Barely a "tink" out of them when rocking the wheels back and forth. Same story when I replaced the ones in the 8 1/4" in my dad's, too bad that didn't fix the clunk his truck had going into reverse. Niether did the new u-joints, the yoke was fine, and the pinion lash was within spec as I recall. Guess it didn't bug him very much, he'd been driving it for 20 years like that.
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My clunk sound happens on reverse and 1,2, and 3 at above 1500rpm. I just don't want my rear end to blow up.
 
d55dave said:
Worn thrust surface on the carrier under the spider gears. I think there is conical stainless washers there (or perhaps they are missing?). You should probably slide the axles out, remove the spiders and investigate.
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I'll have to look, I didn't see any metal shavings or shrapnel.
 
Been in quite a few of these, they clunked from new. There should be next to nothing in slack on the spiders. Excessive wheel spin burns the thrust washers and cross pins. My guess it the cross pin is worn. Deal with it before it tries to cut the case in half. Way cheaper now then after it goes boom! Dont have the specs handy, but when i was setting crown and pinion, i always went on the low side of backlash. I prefer the corporate diffs as they are so easy to dial in.
 
Dave's probably nailed it with the washer suggestion. I dug into a spare rearend a couple months ago and one of the large flat washers (under the gear on the axle) was so thin you could shave with it. There was damage where it rode against the carrier as well. Surprisingly, the gear lash wasn't all that excessive.
 
fshd4it said:
Dave's probably nailed it with the washer suggestion. I dug into a spare rearend a couple months ago and one of the large flat washers (under the gear on the axle) was so thin you could shave with it. There was damage where it rode against the carrier as well. Surprisingly, the gear lash wasn't all that excessive.
Click to expand...
I got a Dana 60, I'll change out that 8 1/4.
 
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