I've got a Lockright on it's way to go in a factory 4.88 V6 rear (Gave up on waiting for an Aussie). I was just going to install it into the third as is, and just do the 'freshening' to the carrier bearing preload as described on Zuk's site... but, now I'm wondering if I should go through the extra effort to put in a solid pinion spacer while I'm at it and eliminate the crush sleeve.
The third is an extra I bought so downtime isn't an issue, the locker should be in early next week, but if I'm getting a solid spacer I need to order it now.
What have you guys done when you put in your lunchbox style lockers? Should I worry about the crush sleeve or forget about it?

 

Pinion depth is the difficult thing to get right. Unless the bearing is toast, I don't mess with it - no reason to do so.

 

if you do you gotta get a kit with a lot of shims. =) get some gear marking paint and a dial indicator and stand and read Zuks walk throughs carefully.

 

Yep. If you go messing around with that you'll have to set the entire 3rd up again. If you just put in the locker supposedly if you mark everything and put it back where it was its a no brainer.

It's not hard to put back together but it is a little tricky getting the bearing caps back on the adjusting nuts.

Take your time and mark EVERYTHING so it goes back in the same place and you'll be fine.

 

I would say for the price they are well worth the money. It's a simple install, doesn't require anything knowledge wise aside from knowing that the pinion nut torque is ~145-253ft.lbs. You can't foul up your pinion depth, it's not determined by the spacer. It's adjusted by means of a shim that sits between the inner pinion bearing and the pinion gear head.

The reason I say to get one is because you'll be protecting your gears by doing so. When the crush-sleeve is over-crushed by the extra force of a locked differential, it loosens the pre-load of the pinion bearings. This translates to improper ring gear backlash and will wear your ring and pinion unduly. Solid pinion spacers prevent having to constantly be checking for a loose pinion nut to prevent damage.

If you have more detailed questions the answer would most likely be here.
http://personal.utulsa.edu/~nathan-b...35differen.pdf