Oh I'm so frustrated. I purchased my '78 Camaro with 4.56 gearing installed, and I have a great set of 3.42 gears that I'd like to install. My situation is this; After removing the 4.56 set, I tried to install the pinion with a new crush sleeve.

After running the nut down to seat the rear yoke, the pinion has excessive play. It is as if the pinion is not passing through the small bearing far enough, and is bottoming out.

I've installed a couple gear sets in other cars prior to this, and have never run into this problem. Anyone else have this happen?

 

If you are using a new crush sleeve you will have to put a lot more torque on the nut to crush the sleeve and get the bearings to make contact. I like using the old sleeve and loctite on the nut.