8.8 Gear Change Issues -- Stuck between Bad Pattern & Too Many Shims

I have swapped 3.27s, 3.55s and 3.73s. I never had an issue -- Here I am with a big one though. I am currently doing a set of 4.10s.

I have found that at my current shim amount that if I have the bearing caps torqued down and I try to spin the ringgear by hand -- that it is impossible. I cannot remember if I had the caps on the last time ive done gears. Thats really the situation.When I check the wear pattern; am I supposed to have the caps torqued down?

If so -- then I have a problem, as the ring gear will not spin by hand if the caps are torqued down. But if i shim down on the pinion head, my wear pattern is off like hell (but my backlash is correct) -- if I check my wear pattern now with the caps on but not torqued (just on there, not tight) that the wear pattern is perfect as is the backlash, but when I go ahead and torque it down, I cant spin nor check a damn thing.

So all in all -- if the caps are supposed to be torqued down when I check the wear pattern, then I'm screwed because it wont move, and if I have to shim down on the pinion gear, I'm screwed as well since the wear pattern shows i need more shims.

I did my last set of gears 5-6 years ago and really can't remember a goddamn thing.

Cliffnotes:

Do the carrier bearing caps need to be torqued down when checking wear pattern?

If they don't -- great I'm set -- if they do -- where the hell do I go/what do i do now?


Sorry for the confusing post.

Best Regards,
Gered

Oddly enough I dunno about that bad set of gears statement -- they did work in the mustang that they came out of (my old car) and they only have about 2000 miles on them; hence the reason I decided to take them out and reuse them.

Perhaps the backlash is off a bit -- im tempted to play with it, even though it reads to be ok.. maybe i need to double check it.

I don't know -- its just getting real old going back and forth to the machine shop to get the bearing off and on again. And as it sits if I take shims off -- im basically at a bad wear pattern.

I started at .030 and then went to .060, and then .070 and .080 and now im at .090 and when i go back to .080 its bad. So ehhh.. I don't know what to say other than MEH.

Any other suggestions?