Hey everyone, I recently acquired a 99 blazer with a ford 8.8 rear end and jeep grand cherokee front axle. The front axle needs new ring and pinion and bearings for them. I purchased a full rebuild kit with shims and all. I have come across a problem though... someone must have tried to do this before me, and did it wrong, causing for the front end to blow out. The pinion had no shims, nor did it have a crush sleeve, and they must have torqued the crap out of it as the pinion bearings are what went out. Anyway, due to it not having shims and everything was blown out, I'm not really able to get measurements to put the pinion and bearings together. This is my first time rebuilding an axle and want to do it right. I have been reading a lot of articles and watching lots of how-to vids so make sure I get it right. This is the only problem I have come across so far and could really use some help. Thanks

 

You never measure existing to set up the new gears, unless you're looking for a starting point. You can find the backlash and preload specs online. Setup bearings will make the job a lot easier. It's a repetitive process of adding/removing shims and checking the gear pattern until you get it right.