[302 LX Eric]

Andy's right on.

Just to add a little bit to the above...you want to make sure that the backlash is set w/in tolerance or else you'll get excessive gear wine and wear - or possible breakage. It's an easy thing to measure with a dial gauge mounted to a magnetic stand: just place the dial gauge on perpendicular to one of the teeth on the ring gear and measure how much movement occurs (back and forth) while the pinion is stationary. Adding or removing shims from one side of the carrier to the other and vice-verse will either increase / decrease the amount of backlash.

But, as stated above, turning the driveshaft a 1/4 inch either way is normal....I wouldn't trust this 'mechanic'.

E