14 bolt axle bent/warped?

[Redfred]

Just rebuilt a 77 14 bolt. Only parts reused were the axle shafts. All new gears, carrier, bearings and a locker. Got a great pattern but while setting up the gears, I had to increase pinion depth one time in particular and went to check backlash again to see if I needed to adjust it again also and as I was turning the yoke, it got in a bind. It wasn't enough that I couldn't turn the yoke by hand but it was in just one spot in the ring gear. I turned the ring gear around a couple times and each time it got to that 1-2 inch span, it would bind. I increased the backlash and it didn't bind anymore but...

I put the carrier in the freezer and the ring gear in the oven so when I assembled it, the ring gear just fell right on the carrier with room to turn to line up the bolts. I snugged the bolts while it was still loose so I know the gear is seated good. I torqued them in a criss-cross pattern. Timken bearings, Yukon gears, G2 carrier, Detroit locker.

I think the difference in backlash between high and low was like .005 while both still fell within the spec for the 14 bolt. I've got so much cash and time in it that I'm just going to go with it but is this a big deal? What could cause this? Is .005 to .006 enough to cause problems?

 

[A1971Blazer]

.005 is quite a bit of variance in the backlash.....in my opinion. If you can get your dial indicator on the carrier or the back of the ring gear, check it for "camming" or run out.....not the OD but the surface where the back face of the ring gear seats on the carrier.
If you have to, pull it out and take the ring gear off then put the carrier back in and bolt it in with the gear off.
Then you can indicate it again that way to see if the carrier is running true. It should be very close to .000-.001 total runout. If it's true then the ring gear could be the culprit.

 

[Hogback Fabrication]

It's possible that the carrier isn't straight or that there is a piece of dirt between the carrier and ring gear.

 

[6.2Blazer]

Pretty common to have very small burrs on the ring or pinion gears when new. A lot of pros make it a standard practice to go other the gears very closely with a file and clean them up, and this is also the reason why you have a break in period for the gears. When new they tend to get hot which is caused by minor imperfections like this.

 

[sweetk30]

fyi you do know the stock open carrier is cast in the to flats that bolt together with ARROWS and need to be lined up .

this might make it wobble possible.

 

[Redfred]

I confirmed all these things prior to install. Took my sweet time, believe me. One thing that makes me lean towards the issue being in the housing is that the old ring gear had a span of about 4 or 5 teeth that were semi rounded on the edges. The rest were normal. It seems like about the same span that I felt the binding on the new gears before I increased backlash. I don't suspect the carrier because it's new also and not the one used with the old gears. That said, for the same reason, I'm ruling out the ring gear too. It's a Yukon. I know that doesn't mean they never have a blem but I think it's rare. Yukon are premium gear sets.

I can't think of how the housing could be bent to cause that. I know the tubes can be bent but that wouldn't affect this. The axles weren't installed yet when I discovered this. Maybe that spot on the old gear was something else but if not, I can't blame any of the internal components cause they're all new. I dunno but I'm just going to run it. The truck will see about 1,000 miles per year so hopefully, although this condition is not ideal, I will not run into any issues that will show up in this low usage application, at least any terminal issues.