Differential Questions

Hey guys, hoping somebody can help me. I have a 8.25" axle. When i turn the axles back n forth, it clunks. I can grab the axle and pull (like your pulling the axle shaft put) and there is play. How much play is normal? Or should there be no play at all? Thanks for any info!

Seeing as the axle shafts are only held in by C-clips a small amount of play is normal, a larger amount and by that like... 3/8" would definitely indicate a problem. If you were somewhere around 1/16 and 1/8ths I would think you'd be fine.

8 1/4" and 9 1/4" pickup axle shafts tend to have a lot of in-and-out play. This doesn't seem to hurt anything, however.

Doc said it all..

pull the inspection cover,then pull the cross pin to see if it is worn and causeing the spiders to have to much backlash/clearance.

I have had some that were worn bad and clunked going it to drive,old trick is to turn the pin and make it clunk going in to revs and not drive

spider set and a new pin has fixed a few of my clunky 8 1/4s and 9 1/4s right up

The spider gears themselves seem ok, and the teeth on ring pinion and spiders all look ok. There does appear to be some looseness in the spider gear set though. Since some play is normal, would it help tighten things up a bit if I replace the shims under the spiders and installed a new cross pin?

Oh yeah, and the passenger side axle had more side play for some reason, that normal too?

yes i have used new shims and spider gear set along with a new pin

pull the pin to see if thats where the slop comes from on the gears..i have just used new pins also

How tight should the gears be on the pin??

they should rotate but not wobble

Mine wobble :-(