2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating

[Advanced Design]

I ordered the crush sleeve kit and since I hadn’t personally done a differential since about 1980, I viewed a couple good video’s to brush up, then dove in. The shim driver I fabricated made reinstalling the new shims simple.

Basically I tightened the pinion nut until the pinion had a rotational torque of 15 inch pounds on the used bearings, placed the same thickness new shims back in beside the gear carrier bearings and verified backlash.

Actually getting the pinion flange to tighten was a hurdle as there apparently was interference in the splines to the pinion gear splines. Multiple thorough cleaning and polishing with emory cloth resolved the issue.