Guys,
Replacing bearings on a stock open diff 8-3/4 rear axle, the FSM says to adjust all bearing end-play on the passenger side, cuz there is no adjuster on the driver's side...

So if you tighten the end-play adjuster on the passenger side down until you have no end play on the passenger side - but STILL have end play on the driver's side - do I recall correctly that we have to add shims or something on the driver's side? Or what do you do to tighten the end play on the drivers' side when you have nothing left to adjust with on the passengers side?

Thanks,
- Art

If this was a limited slip I'd say you dropped a thrust button in the diff.

Open has a block that doesn't fall out of place.

Something is wrong here, mismatched parts, missing parts, bearing not pressed all the way on are a few things that come to mind.

Thanks Ruderunner

My brother is working on it now at a remote garage and called me with the question. The short answer is: There's no short answer!

I'll call him back. All he says he did was put in new OEM tapered bearings, not Green. So I'm thinking it should all go back the way in the way it came apart. Just thinking out loud here; what if he had new races installed? New races get pressed off and the new ones back onto the axle, I'm thinking they could be seated wrong. He didn't take the housing out of the car.

Thanks, let's end it here for now and I'll ask him to clarify.
- Art

i had that happen one time on an open rear, and the reason it happened was there was too much grease on the bearing, causing it to not seat in the housing correctly.
that was a real head scratcher for sure ! did you smack both axles to be sure they were seated in the housing before you started to adjust them ?
if it is a sure grip, you need to remove the center section to replace the lost thrust button as has already been stated.
i have had to do that many times over the years.

When turning the adjuster on the passenger side, occasionally smack that axle with a mallet or shot-filled hammer to keep the drivers side bearing seated outboard.

A thought just occurred, are the bearings installed backwards? The cup should be outboard of the cone.

I know this is a very common mistake when assembling the set 10 bearings used on some vehicles, but on those you have to look really close to tell which way those go. Set 7 is pretty obvious.

Thanks guys, he's been back home scratching his head and texting me.. and I'm like the middleman trying to help him out.

I asked him to tell me exactly what parts he put in, or took out. Did he replace only the roller bearings, oil seals, or did he replace the races too? I don't know he didn't answer me directly

He texts:
"The end play on the driver's side is a 1/16".
"The passenger side adjuster seems to have NO effect on the driver's side. NOTHING."

This text is a little interesting:
"I don't see the logic, because if you tighten in the passenger side, the driver's side ISN'T pulled tighter TOWARDS the passenger side." (My comment: Yeah duh, these are tapered cone bearings and the thrust from the passenger side adjuster is carried all the way through the diff across to the driver's side.)
"There was removed a steel gasket on the driver's side, which improved the end play, but there's still 1/16" end play, on the passenger side it's perfect."
"I'll get back to it in a couple weeks, open it up and check again."

So here's what I texted him back:
Do you have the FSM so you can see how it's all put together?
The logic is this: The bearings are tapered cones. All adjuster thrust comes from the passenger side, is transferred via the axle to the diff, through the diff and via the next axle out to the tapered cone bearing on the driver's side. The driver's axle plate is fixed and holds that end of the tapered cone bearing, and waits for the thrust to come from the passenger side. The passenger axle plate is also mounted tight, but has the adjuster ring inside which provides the thrust inwards that yields the end play for both sides. That inwards thrust is held back by the fixed unadjustable axle flange on the driver's side. There must be something stuck, hung up, on the driver's side, ....or something isn't right with the inner bearing race, that it's not pressed all the way in and can't close the play between itself and the bearing rollers.

NOTE: That very last statement may not be applicable.. I no longer can remember if the tapered bearings come apart from their races.

We shall see what the man does.
- Art

The Mopar set 7 bearings are a very clearly distinguishable cup and cone . The set 10 I mentioned before usually come as a semi sealed unit which makes it tough to tell which way the cone points.

Don't get confused by my mention of the set 10, its not for Mopar vehicles.

Your description of how the adjustment works is pretty good.

That's why it helps to smack the passenger side axle; depending on how the adjuster is turned, the adjuster might not be applying enough force to seat the drivers side.

Thanks all,

I talked with him over the phone, spoon fed him as best I could and the most likely problem is the outer bearing race is adhered in its seat and he needs to just live with it, or try hammering the axles together a bit.
...and you can basically stop reading anymore because...

..he STILL hasn't pulled out his @*^#%# FSM to educate himself... which doesn't help one bit. I texted him photos of the relevant pages.
..he sought advice on what to buy from the president of his local Mopar Club, but is pretty sure he did NOT buy OEM tapered cone bearings but conventional bearings with captured rollers (I'm not sure what terminology bearing-engineers use, but it's the kind of bearing where it doesn't come apart and lateral loads are transferred via the roller sidewalls to the races... so any end play he gets is a result of poor tolerances or play within the captured bearing races and rollers)... and as far as I understand how they work, NO amount of adjuster compression will solve that problem.

.. He let a local service garage do the work, he was there when they split off the old bearings, destructively removed the old cages, rollers, etc, but he took no pictures and isn't sure they had a new inner bearing COLLAR pressed on to secure the inner race.
.. My bother was there when the mechanic carefully cleaned the outer bearing race and the axle housing's bearing seat so the surfaces would have best adhesion when he slathered LOCKTITE on all the surfaces before they slid the driver's axle and bearing into the housing... I think this is what is preventing the bearing from moving tight against the driver's retainer plate.
.. The mechanic slid the re-assembled axles into the housing and bolted up the retainer plates at the service station before my brother came back and took the whole rear assembly back to his garage.
.. Maybe hammering the axle will release the Locktite that is adhering the bearing in its seat.
.. As far as he knows this service station has never done a vintage Mopar axle before.

That's just a whole lotta AARGH! and I really feel like apologizing to you guys, even though I learned more than I knew before.

I hope my brother learned a lot.

Cheers,
- Art

Years ago, a close friend told me;

"Brother stories are ALWAYS true! You just can not make this stuff up...... "

So true.. So true.. and I shoulda #@%ing known, cuz this ain't the first time... Now I'll go post two Brother Stories in the Stu Harmon forum..
- Art