Didnt last long

D7-3T; When I had my final drives apart I took hold of the pinion shaft and checked it for play,, it had a little too much up and down and when I turned it there was some play there too.
Well being a green horn to this machine i just took note.
When I tore down the other side I checked it and it was tight, so I figured when I finished every thing else I could adress it later. So i closed my eyes and ran it any way.
Didnt make it through the testing ground ,I guess it made about 10 hours when the clutch onthe right side started pulling in hard then on a slow engaugment it started chattering.
I pulled the cover took a temp reading 320 f left side was 120 .Stucck a bar inside a pryed on the clutch 1/2 up and down. Time to tear into it.
Tore it down today, pinion flange bolt loose , splines flange and shaft bad shape , I want to work it so I will replace them.
The other flange has play but the bolt is tight the washer is bottomed out on the shaft so it wont tighten any further.
My question is ,do you think a new flange will fix this, the spline on the bevel gear shaft looks fair.
If not its either improvise or new bevel gear shaft,I hope not.
I dont want to tear my finals apart again , what do you think will happen if I have a new bearing on only one side of the final drive pinion shaft?
I really dont want to tear off the final drive again. It was said that that type off roller bearing is forgiving as far as tolerences go. Thanks

where is old magnet?
i would think a new flange would tighten up. the shafts are pretty hard and the flanges can expand or wear causing them to be loose. i would not run it if a new flange does not tighten up. it will not last long, needs to be tight. as for the bearing, i would run it. if it fails, tear it apart then.

You can tighten things up by putting 2 new races on the pinion shaft and one new bearing next to the steering clutch. If it's an old enough final drive cover, you can replace both of the pinion bearings, inner and outer.

As for the splines. Grind a 1/16" to 1/8" off the spline shaft and an equal amount of the flange.

I did the most god awful patch job on a final drive for a fellow once you wouldn't believe. He ran it for years.

If the flanges were loose check to see if they are cracked,a lot of people can be over zealous with the press when fitting them,if it is the flanges that are worn and are scrap anyway get the local machine shop make you up a couple of spacer with a step in them to go over the spline of the shafts,when they are pressed on and the spline sticks out past the flange hub the spacer will go over the spline and shoulder up against the hub and hold it in place,I have used that method for years even on the sprocket by taking a few threads out of the nut and locktab,other than that it's replacement parts.
Good luck
AJ