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Long story short, I am rebuilding a ten bolt for my car as a learning experience more or less. So far its been smooth until I reached this point. I have a Ratech spacer with shims and all the pinion bearings and races have been replaced. I reused my old ring and pinion and reused it's pinion bearing shim as a a starting point. I measured the old crush sleeve as a starting point and shimmed my spacer accordingly. The problem i run into is if I torque the pinion nut to 125 ft lbs (as per Ratech) I get wayyyyy too much resistance. Despite adding numerous amounts of shims, this problem continues. I actually accidentally bought two solid spacers so i had ten shims to work with. There is no slop or play in the pinion after I have tightened it down and if i simply nug up the pinion nut up i can achieve the pinion preload i am looking for but this method is like treating it like a crush sleeve. I even take a punch and tap the pinion gear after tightening the pinion nut to ensure the bearings are seated (as per some video i saw on youtube).
Are you sure the pinion bearing races are seated properly down all the way?? They are not the easiest things to get in all the way. I usually put them in the freezer for a couple of hours so they contract a little bit to help them go in a little easier. You should be able to shine a light in the rear and see they are sitting flush against there mounting surfaces. Honestly I would uses crush collar over shims in a ten bolt. The old crush collar should be very close to the measurement for the spacer. Just double check you have the right bearings. Compare the numbers on the back sides of the bearings to make sure they are correct as well
Well after cooling down and checking it out again this morning,i have determined its something with the inner race. I drove it in flush but the new bearing does not seat against it fully. I tried the old bearing and it was the same way. It appears that does not allow the bearing to pull all the way in for whatever reason. Its like it pinches on the taper alittle too much. These are national bearings and races. It took some effort to get that one in there so I am not looking forward to trying to drive it back out. Anything I should try before i do so?
Never mind. I got it out and not surprisingly the new race drove in properly, easily and the race driver actually fit it. That should have been my first clue when I was assembling it. Check your parts boys and girls. Right is the bad race, left is the good. Bad race. Not properly machined to accept bearing. Good race. Same brand, same part number.
Are you sure the pinion bearing races are seated properly down all the way?? They are not the easiest things to get in all the way. I usually put them in the freezer for a couple of hours so they contract a little bit to help them go in a little easier. You should be able to shine a light in the rear and see they are sitting flush against there mounting surfaces. Honestly I would uses crush collar over shims in a ten bolt. The old crush collar should be very close to the measurement for the pspacer. Just double check you have the right bearings. Compare the numbers on the back sides of the bearings to make sure they are correct as well
And thank you for the help, I appreciate the response.
No problem I’m glad you got it figured out!! I just hope the new race went in nice and tight for you. What brand bearings and races are they?? They should say it on they lip of the bearing??
Yup all was well. The new race went in with a race drive and a small sledgehammer, nice snd clean. The first time I did it I got it about halfway before I had to have someone take a large sledge hammer while I held the driver tool and pop it in. This time around I put it on the freezer as well so that helped.
All the new stuff is federal mogul/national stuff.i am about to go out there and torque it all down now to see where I am at.
A few tries but I got it. Solid spacer wound up being shimmed slightly larger then my original crush sleeve. Wound up at 20-22 inch lbs with no seal on the pinion preload.
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Solid spacer/pinion preload issue 
