How much play (if any) is acceptable on the rotation of the diff drive pinion?

Reason I ask is I am in the middle of changing diffs and the replacement I have found has slight play on it, whereas my old one seems spot on.

Should this be of concern? I didn't want to put it, only to find out after a few miles it's buggered.

Cheers,

Chris.

[Edited on 12/2/10 by Nosbod]

[Edited on 13/2/10 by Nosbod]

if by "free play" you mean in the gears as you rotate the pinion flange, then (its technically backlash by the way) it depends partly on whether there is oil in it or not.

If its dry, then there should be a pretty pronounced bit of "play"

If there is oil in in and you've turned it a few times first to get the oil in between the gears then it should only be fairly slight..

(not going for the full technical answer, no point, but I do have the full specs if you wanted them!)

Fact is, sierra diffs (suuming thats what it is) will usually be fine even with a massive amount of backlash, mine probably has something like 8mm at the outer diameter of the pinion flange and its fine, doesn't whine.

Ok thanks for your help. Its dry at the moment and probably has no more than 1mm of rotational play. I guess this will feel like almost nothing when it has oil in then.

I'll stick it in and see how it goes.

Cheers,

Chris.