are my gears messed up?
 

long story short my buddy set up my 529s and put a detroit ez lock in my
3rd... after about 200 miles i started hearing a loud click sound followed by the truck immediatly shifting to the left a little bit. i figured the locker was somehow messed up so i pulled the 3rd and then i noticed the retard forgot to tighten the pinion bolt... could this have been my problem? what could be messed up because of this?


also there is about a quarter inch of play when i turn the flange... meaning i can turn the flange about a quarter inch before the pinion connects (and starts turning) the ring...

Yep... that's a faulty install. I always use red locktite on the pinion nut, and stake it after it's tightened. I also use a solid spacer instead of a crush sleeve, so the I end up being able to tighten the pinion nut to 175 or 200 ft-lbs.

Hopefully, you caught it early enough. Inspect the gears for any weird wearing pattern, and take a look at your pinion bearings and races, again, looking for any weird wearing patterns. Put it back together, making sure you get your backlash and pinion pre-load correct and get a good contact pattern using gear paint on your gear teeth. Put the 3rd back in, and try it out. If your gears aren't noisy at that point, then you're probably OK.

Arent you the one who was looking for someome to install gears cheap?
You get what you pay for.

haha ya... but this was done long before i asked that question... he set up my front 3rd... and i have had no problems with it and it has bout 500 miles on it...


i guess im gunna bring it to billy bobs and have them fix it up