Setting Pinion Depth

[HectorM52]

Okay, I am switching from 3.42 gears to 4.10 gears. I yanked apart the old stuff. Measured pinion depth at 4.668" using a straight edge and caliper.

Took the old pinion out and had the bearing yanked off. I had him put the old shims on new pinion. So the depth of the new one should be pretty close to the old one, right?

Okay, so I punched the old races out of the housing and then set the new ones in place using the old ones as a guide.

So I did a TON of reading up on the install. Basically I know to not yank the old pinion up too much...could go past the 4.668" and ruin the crush sleeve.

Well, my problem is that I can't seem to tighten the nut enough to snug everything up. I'm at 4.300" or so...and I need to snug up the nut to get it closer to 4.668". I can literally jiggle the pinion inside the races. I guess that's the .368" that remain.

Why can't I tighten the pinion nut any more? It's like its stuck.

I re-used the washer that was under the old pinion nut. I'm wondering if I've bottomed out the nut or something.

Anyone see anything I'm doing wrong???

I'm still dirty, but thinking I'm quitting for the night. This is frustrating.