After replacing my pinion seal, I notice that there is a slight amount of play in my pinion. As I turn the companion flange by hand (driveshaft is still off) it takes about 1/4" or so before the gears engage. Is this normal? I forgot how it was before I replaced the seal. I just wanted to check before buttoning everything up. Also, where exactly does the non-hardening sealer go on the assembly? I put some on the splines on the end of the pinion shaft and some on the back of the washer behind the pinion nut. This sound right? I didn't put a whole lot on the splines...just one large bead all the way around. Thanks in advance.

 

If you are inded turning it 1/4" before the ring gear turns then somthing sounds maybe a bit loose. I would tend to think that if it was like this before the seal replacement then gears would be very noisy. The backlash for those gears runs very tight because they are 2-cut gears, about .003-.006".

Dont over tighten the pinion nut or your preload will go very tight very fast.

Put it back together and drive it and see.

The RTV goes on the splines on the pinion shaft.

 

that is prob normal the pre load on a broke in (used) unit is only about 10 inch pounds. did you count the turns front the pinion nut and put back right where it was? best thing to do is scribe or punc the put to pinion for reference and put back exact....you should have some play though with back lash is prob from 8 to 14 thousands and when you are turning the flange it seems like a larger turn than the ring and pinion.... what im saying is the diamater of the flange is larger than the pinion its bolted to so the pinion is not moving as much as the flange if you have 3.73 gears your drive line is gonna go 3.73 turns for every turn of the ring gear inside.. the rtv is for the diff cover incase you needed to pull the cover
hope that helps