Is this slop in the front diff normal? (vid)
 

First off, here's the background.

I found this diff by placing a wanted ad on several forums. I recently decided to run 5.29's in my truck for the 36's and I figured I'd try looking for a used front that someone had culled when they did an SAS so i could save some cash.

This guy was from pirate 4x4 and he said he had a low mile setup that he'd ship to me from CA for $150 total. I jumped all over it. Here's his quote about the details of it:



First impressions are that it's in pretty decent shape and the gears do indeed look fresh. The pinion spins freely and doesn't make any noises at all when you turn it, but if you shake the short side and rotate it back and forth there seems to be a lot of slop in it. The long side is as tight as can be, but the short moves around a lot. It's almost as if its missing a shim or something.

Here's a few pics of it:

http://www.ovrrdrive.made2own.com/up...%20005_800.jpg
http://www.ovrrdrive.made2own.com/up...%20004_800.jpg
http://www.ovrrdrive.made2own.com/up...%20003_800.jpg


And here's a 1 minute clip of me rocking it back and forth and the noise it makes from the spiders. Sorry its so shaky but I took it with my digital camera and it was hard to hold it still and move it around.

It's about a 15mb clip but it's a wmv file so it should stream.

http://www.ovrrdrive.made2own.com/front_diff.wmv

Any ideas?

My offroading won't be any hardcore offroading at all. Most of the time this truck will just drive me back and forth to work. I still think it was worth $150 to ship it as far as the guy did to me, but I'm wondering if this thing has an imminent failure in its future or if this is no big deal.

Thanks for watching.

Also, if anyone can identify the brand of the gear I'd appreciate it...

http://www.ovrrdrive.made2own.com/up...diff_brand.jpg

That's perfectly normal play. Just as long as you can't get very much, if any movement up&down/side to side, if you grab opposing ends/bolts of that axle stub shaft. Not what you were doing there. I just wiggled mine, it wanted to move about 1/16" or so, side to side, any more than that, no good. The longer shaft is tighter like that on mine too. It has an extra bearing near the end on that side, for support. The piece your showin' basically gets pressed and held in there by the cv shaft, and won't have any real play in & out when installed. As far as rotational play, there should be a small amount, you'd need to check the backlash, to be sure. I don't have that number, unfortunately. Unless the gears are particularly worn, they don't appear so from my angle, don't worry about the backlash.

As to which brand gears, ?

No ring bolt lock tabs, the only thing I notice that isn't what should be, they're on factory set up gears. The guy probably used some threadlocker, totally acceptable.

That's all pretty much what I was thinking but I figured advice is free around here and all you have to do is post.

It's good and tight when you turn the pinion or the long side, it's just that little short one that moves around so much. If its even close to normal I think I'll be ok with it. We weren't sure about it and I'm putting it in weekend after next so i thought I'd get some other opinions.

Thanks for the reply Mudhippy, that's exactly what I was looking for.

As for brand, I'm betting if no one else nails it, sooner or later Zuk will drop in and tell me exactly what they are and how easily they break. ;)

I bought a chunk like that w/5.29's installed a while back...it's got the same play on the long side. If Zuk does happen to pop in maybe he can identify my gears too...Couldn't get a picture of the engravings since the camera WILL NOT focus, but "TOY-529 I" is stamped on the ring gear...

Did you run it like that with the slop?

Was/has it been ok?

Btw, your camera should have a setting on it called macro that will allow you to take closeup pics. It looks like a flower in a pot on most cameras. Just turn macro on and back up about 2 feet from the gear and snap it. It takes a little practice to get it right but when you figure it out you can take great close up pics.

overdrive---I can't ID your gears....7x37 is 529 gears so they are not factory but that's about it. What really counts is they are not Genuine gears....so if they were set correctly then you have nothing to worry about.

all_terrain17-- Yours might be Genuines with that marking.....sorry....
http://gearinstalls.com/sam_files/sam7.jpg

http://gearinstalls.com/sam_files/sam5.jpg

Thanks Zuk. If you can't ID them they must have been cut in some guys basement or something. :lol:

I'm not going to worry about them.

Thanks everyone.

It's the sister's cheapo digital - tried all the settings and worked with it. I'm just challenged :D The 3rd is holding down the garage floor right now, I'm searching for a matching rear or at least a cheap, 4.10 chunk that I can have regeared and Aussie-Locked.

That's what I was thinking you'd say http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...7/laughing.gif Yep, that stamping looks like mine except with out the "I" after "529". Mine doesn't have the other crooked marking in the second photo either, only some set-up numbers engraved on the ring.

Thanks, Zuk!

You are lucky .....you don't have the 4 digit code like my pic above so you don't have a Genuine. That's good news.