Tore everything apart to change axle seals...and it's been a shitshow ever since. I've set up plenty of diffs, but never an ARB....I understand that ARB wants considerably more preload than others on the carrier bearings.
When I tore this thing down, there was a "master shim"...big thick thing, probably 0.150" or so on the non-air side outboard of the bearing race...as well as a 5 piece stack including what appears to be a couple mostly worn out LSD clutches out of something plus a few 0.2thin shims...all between the race and the cast housing.
The air side had a 6 shim stack between the air collar and the cast housing...in the place you'd typically expect to see shims in a conventional diff.
By "feel", before pulling the carrier out, lash and preload felt pretty good...so I was hoping to duplicate it going back in...as it should be. I don't have a case spreader, and was hoping not to make one, but it looks like that's where we're going....
The air side shims weren't fucked up when it came apart...so I left those alone. The non air side thin shims all tore when I removed the carrier so I measured them all up after cleaning and came up with .0143"...measured up individually after adding them all together came up with 0.139". I machined up a single shim out of a chunk of 4340 I had to 0.141" (split the difference). Put it all back together and the fucking thing won't move by hand...too much preload.
ARB is less than helpful. Is there a document with specs on preload or instructions as to how they want this thing preloaded? Are there supposed to be a stack of shims outboard of the air collar or do the shims go between the air collar and the bearing...as I found after I pulled it out again to repair the copper tube that broke off the last time I touched it carefully through this ordeal?
When I tore this thing down, there was a "master shim"...big thick thing, probably 0.150" or so on the non-air side outboard of the bearing race...as well as a 5 piece stack including what appears to be a couple mostly worn out LSD clutches out of something plus a few 0.2thin shims...all between the race and the cast housing.
The air side had a 6 shim stack between the air collar and the cast housing...in the place you'd typically expect to see shims in a conventional diff.
By "feel", before pulling the carrier out, lash and preload felt pretty good...so I was hoping to duplicate it going back in...as it should be. I don't have a case spreader, and was hoping not to make one, but it looks like that's where we're going....
The air side shims weren't fucked up when it came apart...so I left those alone. The non air side thin shims all tore when I removed the carrier so I measured them all up after cleaning and came up with .0143"...measured up individually after adding them all together came up with 0.139". I machined up a single shim out of a chunk of 4340 I had to 0.141" (split the difference). Put it all back together and the fucking thing won't move by hand...too much preload.
ARB is less than helpful. Is there a document with specs on preload or instructions as to how they want this thing preloaded? Are there supposed to be a stack of shims outboard of the air collar or do the shims go between the air collar and the bearing...as I found after I pulled it out again to repair the copper tube that broke off the last time I touched it carefully through this ordeal?
