I'm getting my transmission and engine ready to install this weekend. I pulled the gear stack to clean the inside and the gears. Now here's the question: when I reach inside and try to spin the differential with my finger it won't turn, but when I spin it with the stub axles its spins pretty snug. When I loosen up the nuts on the side cover it spins free, and when I torque the nuts down it tightens up. So is there anyway to clearance the side cover a bit?
Thanks

Craig, Evil went out of town. There are a couple other fella's here qualified to answer that Q. I don't understand why it would do that unless someone was in there before you. Sooooo here's a

Thanks for the bump. The transmission has only 80,000 original miles on it and has never been opened up except for now. The only thing I did was to remove the side cover to replace the seal and the o ring on the side cover. I just talked to Aaron and he remembered them being a little on the snug side so I guess I'm ok but I just wanted to make sure.

yes they are a little snug,when the trans warms up to about 180-200F it turns much easyer

Excellent thank you Thomas

There is a torque spec in the factory manual. I dont' remember the exact value, but the bearing clearances are set by measuring the drag on the diff rotation with a torque wrench. It is a small value, in inch-pounds. You use a beam type torque wrench, and turn the center bolt on the drive flange to measure it.

If the trans has never been messed with, then it is fine.. don't worry about it.

I agree it will be fine if it ran fine before you opened it.
No real way to screw anything up in it. As long as you don't swap the cover or diff to another case.

Swapping bearing shims is a bit of a pain.

Uh... just to make sure here... you pulled the stack from the back of the trans - not just the side covers. The pinion depth is set by the gasket that goes between the intermediate plate and the case. The gaskets come in different thicknesses. If your pinion depth is incorrect (too tight) you may experience bad gear wear and a whining noise. Loosening the side cover would help relieve the symptom, but obviously won't solve the problem.

HTH,

Well tonight I reassembled the transmission after cleaning everything and putting in new seals. After cleaning the differential I prelubed the bearings with Royal Purple gear oil, installed it, and torqued the bolts on the side cover. Then I put the stub axles in and turn it and wow much better. Then I measured the old gaskets and found the size I needed in the gasket set and put the rest together.

The reason I took it all apart to clean it is when I pulled it out of the car years ago I changed the oil and dumped alot of moly additive in it only to find out thats a no no, lucky I never drove it. Boy the inside was coated all over with black goo from the moly. Thank you everyone with your help.