Aw man. If youre close to Rochester, NY you're getting chicken wings. This info is very much a blessing. I think I got enough to run with it, thank you so much!

Don't be afraid to give me any other tips or tricks! I'll take the knowledge anytime

 

130 ft/lbs... is that for crushing a spacer or something? seems high for roller bearings

 

I found a 41mm crowfoot locally!

Got the Pinion Nut off and I have to admit..I'd be surprised if this thing had 30 ft/lbs of torque on it. Crazy to think this tcase saw traps speeds close to 150mph the way it is!

 

Rear Diff Pinion Nut is 45 ft/lbs. I can't see the TCase nut being almost 100 ft/lbs more. From removal 45 ft/lbs seems accurate but I could be wrong as a rebuild especially one going fast may require more torque.

I used the press to push the splined end of the pinion shaft down and out of the housing. Bearing puller made getting the tapered bearing off near the pinion head a breeze.

The shim is in front of the tapered bearing on pinion nut end where the diameter gets smaller. I've taken apart 2 tcases tonight, one was bad and purely practice but I noticed both cases actually had the same exact shim in them. Both from 2003.

 

@AWD96 If you replace both bearings and reuse the existing shim, because the pinion and ring gears are OK, then simply set the pinion nut preload to give you 9-11 in/lbs of frictional drag on dry bearings no seals.
If you replace the gear set and bearings, you may need to re shim the pinion gear height to give minimal backlash with the ring gear through all 360 degrees of its rotation. Minimal means that you can only just feel the backlash in the dry, assembled t-case. The new shim(s) deform elastically as you torque the pinion shaft nut, more so than the inner race of the tail shaft bearing. It is in this case that a higher tightening torque, (up to 130 ft/lbs), is usually required to generate the 9-11 in/lbs of frictional drag that indicates both bearings are correctly preloaded. Hope this helps!

 

@cdrinkh20 this has been a HUGE help! Thank you so much for your knowledge. I'll be reassembling it all tonight with a donor ring and pinion that has 60k miles on it but new bearings.

It has seriously been a huge blessing getting this information from you. I can't express my appreciation enough!

 

UPDATE!

Pinion gear is reinstalled to the housing. I tried a variety of torque settings while checking drag by feel. I do not have a dial type torque wrench for drag.
I will say that even 45 ft/lbs of torque on the pinion nut was too much and would almost not allow the gear to spin freely.

I ditched the torque wrench and tightented the nut to the point there is a very slight amount of drag but it moves freely. You cannot just spin the gear set by hand where it'll free spin after. Comparing to the donor gear set I used prior to removal they are similar. Similar is not an accurate measurement for something thatll spin over 8k rpm so not going to lie I am slightly skeptical.

I have the front housing reinstalled and I will be using the yellow gear paint tonight to see how the contact pattern looks after everything is torque to spec and spun multiple rotations

 

@AWD96 The main reasons for torquing the pinion nut are to; (a) seat the new bearings squarely in their housings, (b) provide enough preload on both races so they provide the stiffness required to support the pinion gear axially and radially, and (c) to take up any clearance that opens up as the races and rollers break in.

You didn't mention backlash which is an important indication that pinion gear height is set correctly. If your pinion shaft shim thickness is the same as the old setup that is a good starting point. Height is set by a combination of shim thickness and by exactly how the replacement gear set was machined. If the pinion is too high, the gear teeth will contact too close to their roots, taking up all the available backlash, increasing friction, and generating heat. If the pinion gear is too low, its teeth will contact closer to their tips. This will increase bending stress and shock loading on the teeth during the transition between drive and coast, resulting in premature failure. Proper pinion height ensures the pinion teeth mesh with the middle of the teeth on the ring-gear – between the tip and the root. Correct height also sets the correct backlash or clearance so an oil film can form between teeth in a hypoid gear set. This film cools and lubricates the teeth faces as they slide across each other, resulting in a happy gear set.

How much backlash do you feel now you have assembled it with the 60k ring and pinion?

 

some coverage of the masters at work (@8:30)

 

@cdrinkh2o So I've only put the pinion into the housing and then mated it with the housing the Ring/Viscous go into. I haven't put the rest in yet.

My main concern is that I tightened the Pinion Nut too tight. Right now I have it to the point where the tapered bearings do not have any axial play, and there is a fair amount of drag. I can turn the tail shaft with 2 fingers with a little effort. I noticed there was a very certain point where the "in & out" bearing play ceased but it just felt too loose for something seeing the load it would see so I went a little tighter on the nut. I had a friend that was going to let me borrow an Inch Pound Dial Tq Wrench but it only went to 5"/lb so that's out the window.
On one hand I know bearings break in and especially after a good amount of fluid moves through and it heat cycles they're likely to loosen up. On the other hand I worry theyre too tight and I may cause premature failure due to being preloaded too far. I have quickly learned the right tools would make this a breeze and not having them is the line of separation for certain success.

 

Hmm, 10K for replacement transfercase parts. I hope this is an error in the pricing. I could buy a couple transfercases for that price.

 

That's just because they want to keep the listing up, the units are out of stock for at least a month. They were $1299 previously.

 

you should get the hardened ones from Shep/TRE

 

@cdrinkh2o



Backlash is just barely noticeable, I'd say less than a mm of movement left to right before contact

 

Anddd heres the reason I decided to do all of this. I put an RS LSD in 6 years ago and noticed some faint cracks. Car made over 650whp on STMs dyno and ran a ton of bottom 10 sec passes at 140+mph. I knew my time was short so before this season I tasked myself with a Tcase rebuild. I also did my transmission myself with some past and present input from Raif @RRT since he did the trans twice for me in years past.

Thanks for all that have read this far and to @cdrinkh2o for all of the knowledge. I'll update in about a week when the car hits the dyno!