Originally Posted by
BorackBasher
just bought a new ft kit and putting it together right now.. im installing the diffs right now and not sure if i need to keep the outside shim when doubling up on the shims under the sun gear.. because when i put the diffs together it seems a little tight but not too bad.. but when i put the transmission case on it seems to bind a little... any thoughts?
I am too lazy to look back through the thread, so the following is only from memory and MAY BE INCORRECT.
The original shims inside the diff were 0.2 mm thick.
When people had problems with wobbly outdrives (and maybe coning shims due to too much uptravel) some people swapped out the 0.2 mm for XRay 0.3 mm.
I'm pretty sure AE now recommends (and supplies free of charge) a 0.5 mm shim inside the diff with NO shim on the outdrive (outside of the diff).
Personally I bought a 0.3 mm shim from McMaster (maybe 5x10mm) and use one on each diff half, together with the outdrive shim.
I am giving yu all these numbers just so you can add up your total shimming and see if it exceeds these methods.
One last thing to note, when I bought and assembled my FT truck, the rear trans would bind. It was not due to over-tightening the screws or any of the other suspected problems, it was due (I believe) to a defective trans case. I bought a new trans case and a new diff case (just to be safe) and it went together perfectly, no binding.
Nothing makes me happier than plopping down a chunk of money for a kit only to have to make another trip to the LHS to finish the thing . . . maybe I should have just returned it then . . . no j/k I like my truck.