Carrier Bearing Replacement There you go.
Well everyone, Im in the middle of this troubleshoot myself. I have some useful info that I think may disprove some of our suspicious theories concerning excessive play in the 3S drivetrain system.
First some background information to compare:
-Heavy clunking experienced during sudden accel and some during decel In most all gears.
-Measured over .25" backlash at the companion flange
-Clunking appeared to come from the rear.
-Zip tied carrier bearings (helped symptoms some but not 100%)
I pulled my diff to do backlash adjustment. Adjusted it to about .005" (Spec says .004-.006") Upon putting the driveshafts and t/f case on I checked backlash visually by rotating the propeller shaft. Same as before. At this point I figured something else must be wrong with the rear diff so I completely removed it only to find everything checks out ok again. My backlash must be inside the transmission. I know the OS is good and t/f case is fine. I wonder where the source is though...
Just goes to show that if someone has symptoms like mine it could be any of the above in terms of what's causing it.