8.8 rear, I know I must have screwed this up somehow.

[jaywish]

I installed all new bearings in this Mark VII rear. It had been whining pretty much since I did it. Finally after maybe 5-10K miles I opened it up to have a look.



On the left side of the rear you can see the shims sticking out. Any particular reason that they would become dislodged like that? (other than I just F..ked up.)

Thanks,
Jay

[kodiak]

Ouch!!

Sent from my '85 Lincolin Town Car

[gadget73]

if the shims are installed properly, they basically can't move. They should be captive in position. I want to say they sit in a pocket in the bearing cap, but that may be incorrect. Looks like it was too tight or something and the shims were stuck to the spinning carrier. If the bearings weren't pressed fully onto the carrier, that might do it.

[jaywish]

I can't remember if they are held in place by the bearing caps. I was thinking from looking at it they were too loose but given the situation, I don't know much. I thought they were in there pretty tight when they went in.

Incidentally, I put the cover back on filled it with oil and the car is back on the road. I am going to try and get to this job on Tuesday.

[sly]

yeah... the bearing caps should hold them in as the shims should be on the outside of the bearings under the caps.that makes me think that the load was too tight and was binding the bearings and spinning the race against the shims.

[jaywish]

Well maybe that is it. I don't know if I will be able to tell anything when I disassemble it.

[jaywish]

It turns out that the bearing caps only partly cover the shims. If you have the oem 1 piece shim this is no problem. If you have a pile of small shims it could be a problem. Not saying I did not do anything else wrong but that is what I found. I reset the carrier with some old oem shims that fit pretty well and all seems ok so far.

[sly]

that makes sense.

[gadget73]

yeah that would do it. Usually I've seen the fat shims used for the bulk of the space, with maybe a couple thin shims as needed.

[pantera77]

I refuse to use those stupid thin shims. Just find the right size fat shims.

[jaywish]

Still I am not quite settled about this as many folks must use the thin shims since all the bearing kits ship that way.

[P72Ford]

I am having a hard time with this.

I've done 8.8s before, GM 10 bolts (similar) etc.

The axles run down through the center of the shims, into the carrier. They should prevent the shims from falling out entirely.

Is it possible the carrier centerline was not parallel with the axle housing centerline? Maybe when you torqued the mains down, the carrier was binding? You'd get a valid torque value, but it doesn't mean everything was seated. Even a few thousandths could cause the shins to get pinched, loaded, and spit out of their seat.

I do believe they are held captive by the axle running through the shims, bearing, race, into the carrier, though.

[jaywish]

Yes they are normally captive. These moved, came in contact with the axle and were ground away. The shims were "C's" not circles when they came out. I believe they were only held in place by the cover.