3sgte S54 Diff/Axle free play, vid Options

[lagos]

I've been hearing some clunking/thumping noises that happen only on deceleration while the car is in gear. I noticed that there seems to be some freeplay in my passengers side axle/diff. Can someone verify for me if their s54 has the same free play and makes the same clicking sound when you push up/down on the axle or the diff inside?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHrM0HpqNpA

[Batman722]

I used a 2000 Solara e153 w/51K miles on it and after reading the jgreening "short axle" thread and talking to Corey I decided to use spacers just in case. Other people have not used spacers and have had no issues but I didn't want to take any chances.

I used IIRC 91 MR2 inners (with the MR2 axle carrier) and all-trac outers.
The spacers were easy to make, I just used spare parts from the left over axles and brought them to a local machine shop ($15 each).
I did have one issue though, this pic



the top is the MR2 axle and the bottom is s54. The groove where the snap ring is on the 2 axle needed to be in the same spot as the s54. So I brought them over to the machine shop and I had two options, either make a new snap ring groove closer to the end of the axle or shave the end off a bit. I wanted to make sure the axle sat snug inside the tranny so I had the top shaved down.

This is IMO because I'm using old axles with a newer tranny. If you use a 2 tranny then you wouldn't have that issue, everything would fit fine but you would have a 15 year old high mileage tranny.

I have had no tranny or axle problems problems.
If you want any details about the spacers or anything, just let me know.