Originally Posted by HappyJack

Thought thrust washers were hardened.

But anyway the guy working on it found another LS carrier so he is going to try that.

And I did consider seeing if a machine shop could widen the inside of the case so we could run the stock factory Thrust washers. We would need about .017 off each side.

Another idea was to have the stock Thrust washers ground down .017 each. I guess if it is done slowly and "wet" it would retain the hardness.

Sure would be easier if the thrust washers were available in .020 thickness on a shelf somewhere.

Originally Posted by Beemer Nut

If I understand correctly the "couplers" replace the side gears in a open diff if needed, the shims of same thickness are installed between the couplers and inside of the carrier.

This is in a LS carrier. Powertrax makes parts for both open and LS carriers. Lock Right makes parts for the open carrier. The Lock Rights I have installed re-use the stock thrust washers. This Powertrax has instructions that says not to use the stock thrust washers.

Question I have is why hardened shims are required when standard thrust washers are brass/bronze coated on steel?

You know I have worked on a number of these and installed Lock Rights in them. 8.8, Dana 28, Dana 35, and Dana 44. And I have never seen a thrust washer that wasn't all hardened steel. I was talking to my friend yesterday who talked to a machines friend of his and I finally realized that some differentials had thrust washers made out of different materials.

I like what they say about if you have clearance problems that your case is the problem.

As far as grinding hardened washers you might grind thru as hardness isn't
that thick.

Guess what we are going to do if need is have the Thrust washers ground and make sure the ground side is against the carrier and the side that still is hardened is against the back of the coupler.

I would rather have a soft material like bearing bronze for shims, should you have a problem in the future the softer shim will not cause damage to the iron thrust surfaces.

I don't know why they use hardened thrust washers. But I would think the Powertrax (Richmond Gear) wouldn't have a reason to give me bad info. And as I said above all the axles that I have worked on in the past had factory hardened steel thrust washers. Must be some reason for it. If I could find a thrust washer the correct size that was hardened on one side and soft on the other I'd be tempted to try it. But so far I have only been able to locate steel thrust washers down to .030.

I bet your not the only one with this problem, I would check the 4x4 forums and ask them if they also have had this problem.

Yup! I'm betting the Powertrax unit we have has problems. Don't think I'll use it again.

On a high mileage F250 (843K) with a worn out carrier, spider and side gears I installed 2 washers under each spider plus cut out thicker side gear washers out of bearing bronze. Over 200K miles later with the new owner the rearend still has almost the same slack as installed. This is a open rearend that gets a lot of peg leg spinning hauling firewood.