I bought a '58 rear axle to hang under my '50 chassis. I have no knowledge of the past life of the '58 axle. I cleaned everything up, replaced all the seals and brake components and welded the spring perches onto the axle. It finally came time to push the chassis out of the garage. It moves about 6 inches and locked up the back wheels. It'll roll backwards fine.
I've done enough inspecting to find the problem is the pinion gear. I've tightened the main bolt on the u-joint connection as tight as I can get it, but the pinion still has about a half inch of front-to-back movement. So, as I start to roll it forward, the pinion shifts back and binds up the gear. I don't have the driveshaft in place yet.
Anyone have any idea what I'm missing or doing wrong? I've thought I may need to pull the whole third member out and reshim the main bearing, but don't know if that will solve my problem.
