George_96_Z28

I need a bit of help here.

Last week I replaced my rear axle wheel bearings with the help of some great advice from these boards. It seemed to go great and the bearings no longer make the noise. But I messed up somewhere.

I put everything back together and the wheels rotated fine when I manually turned them. No noise and such. I turned the vehicle on and backed it out of my driveway and instantly heard something wrong. A loud pop. It sounded to me as if one of the teeth on the differential ring gear slipped. So I pushed the car back into the garage. I opened it up today and noticed a few things.

First. The gear ring itself now has little wear marks on some of the teeth. I was pretty sure these were not here when I had the rear axle housing cover off last week. These marks are also on the drive pinon gear teeth. There is also a space between these two pieces that I am also pretty sure wasnt there. When I move the tires from a forward motion to a rearmotion there is a knock as the gears change motion. This is from them losing contact with eachother to change directions.

So, am I really tripping here with thinking these two pieces should be pretty much always touching eachother? And these wear marks? Are they common or should this piece pretty much be flawless?

Any advice would be appreciated. I can get pictures as well if that may help.

-George