As received from Jason...V6 third with a Detroit SoftLocker and Yukon quality 529 gears. Apparently ran into a few issues that were beyond the scope of the emails that we were swapping back and forth. After about 70 miles, the rear end started making a loud whining noise. Time to pull the 3rd and lick a stamp and hurl it in ZUK's direction.

This was the only marking on the ring gear. I've seen it before and they do set well.

Pre-inspection....this is a little unusual...too much thread is showing

I discreetly marked the adjusters with the dremel grinder to do a comparison at the end of this link.

I measured the backlash at 3~4 thou.....a bit tight. I also noted that there appeared to at least be some carrier bearing pre-load. Thumbs up.

The pinion turned extremely "rough" like it had a bad case of the chatters.

When I pulled the pinion, I noticed the solid collar was not seated all the way down. The screwdriver is pointing to the nearly 100 thou gap. The collar was tightly wedged.... I had to press it off with the big pinion bearing to release it.

The trick to removing the monster bearing without damaging it....is to use a modified bearing separator (lotsa grinding to the half-dishes) and apply pressure while using the free hand to spin the cage. If it locks up, release the pressure and do something different. I have not lost a cage yet.

I placed a different V6 collar I had on the pinion to see the maximum it would slide on and marked it.

...then the one that Jason had on there.....it would not slide all the way down. Something was interfering....

Close inspection of the collar revealed some hammer damage. I used a curved file and now the collar slides on nicely.

Then I found that the outer pinion bearing was the wrong one. Part number Timken 30306 made in Poland....designed for 79~85 4 cylinder 3rds. 30306 on left and a V6 version on right.
Update--- I found out later that the 30306 will work if 4 additional spacers are placed directly under the flange.

After a couple of tries, .050" worth of shims gave a nice 12 in/lb of pinion pre-load.

While turning the pinion by hand and tapping on the bearing here....

It will be found that the adjuster wheel can be tighten up some more.... then repeat the "tap-tap" procedure about 3 more times before everything finds its "set".

I applied some marking paint on 3 teeth (both sides) and used a wrench on one of the ring gear bolts to move the ring gear assembly back and forth.

This is with .008" backlash and the pattern looks fine. Pinion shim used here is .082".

coast .082" good.

This is the final settings for the adjusters...this is on the ring gear side and actually ended up quite close to where Jason had his adjustment.

But on the 'non-ring gear' side I have noticably more 'pre-load'. This is one of the SINGLE most important adjustments to maximize ring/pinion strength....strong carrier bearing pre-load.

With the right small pinion bearing, everything looks much better here... only about 1 thread is showing which is about right. I did not dimple the nut because I have a solid collar with 200 pounds of torque and blue-loctite.

Not only has this 3rd been 'repaired' but strength has been maximized. Done.