Too Much Pinion?
Super quick update:
when i turn the tire by hand, 3/4 of the rotation of the yoke is smooth, then come to a hard stop. If I really push the tire/yoke will complete the rotation. It could be a cap in the yoke? Nothing is physically binding and I don’t think the pinion angle is wrong, it’s something with the u joint. Thank you for all the help and o”pinions”!
You need to back up here, think about this.
If it was a U-Joint problem it would get tight on the yoke at 1/2 rotation, not 3/4 rotation, like you are saying.
Leading you to the ring gear on your freshly rebuilt 8 3/4 chunk that is not seated squarely on the differential housing, probably a steel burr under on edge if it, or it was torqued unevenly. This should have been caught on the ring gear backlash setup, probably did not do the full rotation check of the backlash.
Like putting all the bolts in the ring gear, then starting at 12:00 o'clock with the impact wrench and going around the clock till they are all tight, instead of tightening in an X pattern in increments as you bring up the torque going around it multiple times.
Next step, pull the driveshaft off and rotate the yoke by hand 360° multiple times and make sure it is rotating freely with no binding.
Could even be some debris in the new carrier bearings slowing the roll.
Once the chunk checks out then move forward. Making sure the new driveshaft length is not bottoming out in the transmission. Rotate the driveshaft by hand with the transmission in neutral to make sure that is turning free on full revolutions before bolting the driveshaft up to the yoke at the rear end.
