Dana 18 Rebuild...

Folks, I'm rebuilding my Dana 18 Transfer Case and I'm having a difficult time with the shims. I can't get any endplay out of the shaft. Like zero. The shaft spins beautifully but it shows no endplay.

When I went with the original shims to start and torqued it all down nothing spun without some serious elbow grease, and there was no endplay. I disassembled and continued to add shims until I've got a free turning output shaft, but I still don't have any endplay. Before I chalk it up to, I'm doing this wrong and need to get some help using my measurement gauge, I'm curious if maybe I pressed the bearing cup too far into the case?

What do y'all think? Do I need to tap the bearing cup out and start over, or get help measuring the endplay?

Transmission rebuild was fun and went without a hitch.

Thanks as always for the help!

 

Do you have the yoke installed and torqued to factory specs? If no then you are chasing your tail.
I set them up without the seal installed as that can throw out your readings. Once I get them where I want them then I install the seal.

 

I took it all back apart, and the second time around it had play in it like it should have. I did install the front yoke the second time around before messing with the shims. I'm going to assume this was the trick, because nothing else materially changed.

Thanks for the wisdom!