I am in the process of rebuilding the rear-end of my 54 GMC 1/2-ton pickup. The rear-end is a 1957 rear-end with an open drive line u-joint flange attached to the pinion shaft. I bought a rear-end rebuild kit from ChevyDuty (manufactured by Yukon Gear & Axle) that came with all the bearings, pinion seal, ring-gear bolts and washers, and two crush sleeves. My question is about these crush sleeves that come with the kit. My 1960 shop manual calls this part a bearing spacer, but I think it is same thing as the crush sleeve. The design of the new crush sleeves is different from the one I removed from my pinion shaft. In case you are unfamiliar with what a crush sleeve looks like it is metal tube 1-1/2" in diameter and 2-1/2" long with a bulge around the circumference of the tube. On my old sleeve the bulge is right on the end of the tube and the new one the bulge is 3/4" down from the end. The old sleeve is also 1/16" shorter than the new ones, but I think this is to be expected after it has been "crushed." Will these new crush sleeves work OK (or maybe better) even though the design is somewhat different? Has anyone else seen this before? Thanks.
Jim
