well, i was told by many people that if i were to remove the carrier and keep all the shims in the right order for both sides, i could re-install it without having to set backlash again, assuming im not replacing bearings or the R&P. and i do have a torque wrench for the bearing caps and i marked where they go. when i get a chance today, im gonna take it back apart and see what i can do about this. thanks alot guys!!

and bluegrass, thats an ingenious idea for the s-spring.

 

its very soft brass. and why would they include it with trac-lock spider gears??

 

The possible problem is replacing the carrier since your original is cracked. Even using the ring gear again you may use new bearings and have new matching cups that could change the preload.
The bearings need to come off the old carrier and/or the new ones pressed onto the new carrier.
If the carrier is machined to a sleight different demension, you have to fit the shims to make up for the differences to set the backlash. Any combination of these could change the shim stack thickness.
Results of not getting it set within tolerence is noise and looseness or being to tight and wearing through the surface hardfacing of both the ring gear and the pinion.
Again, once you get the right shim stack thickness both sides to pre-load the carrier bearings, then to adjust the backlash the same thickness shim has to come out of one side and be put back into the other side to move the carrier in the direction you want it to move.
Good luck.

 

The S spring is used in all rears open or traction lock.
In a car the spring is a lighter tension.
In traction lock they put the tension on the clutch packs through the side gear set since the axles are splined through the side gears.
Everything is free to move on the splines.
The axles are held in by C clips and are held in place when they set into a recess.
look at the C clips for wear and the grooves in the axle they go into.

 

you have discovered why i opted to scrape together the 400 bucks to buy a different rear end. parts alone when mine went would have been about 400+ labor so it was cheaper to buy the new rear. ... but i still got raped because normally you can find these rear ends for 150 all over the place, but at the time it was the only one i could find and i HAD to have the truck back on the road, so i paid what i paid, but it was still the cheapest rout for me to go.

 

im not replacing the carrier yet. im driving it as is until i can get enough money to replace the carrier and bearings, which will be soon. the truck cant sit in my driveway much longer. when i get a new carrier, it will be an open one and ill put an aussie locker in it. as for the bearings, ill have my buddy set up the backlash and preload.

 

My bad, I was guessing on that one.

Thanks Bluegrass

 

oh yeah, i have never seen an open diff with a s-spring. they have no use. they have no clutches, so nothing to push against. and the cross pin holds the axles in place so they dont let the c-clip fall out.

EDIT yeah, this is a fully assembled 8.8 open diff. no S-spring there.