4610 brakes help

Pretty embarrassed here, because this doesn't make sense to me and it is probably something very apparent that I am missing. Here is the problem.

I took off the left axel assembly to replace the brake discs. The left side makes some weird noises under heavy braking so I figured I would dig into in over the winter and replace the brake discs while i was in there.

Axel housing is removed and sitting upright on the wheel end. I removed the brake assembly and found a piece of metal (looks exactly like the end of the slider on my set of calipers that somebody probably use to pry something and broke it) wedged in between the two actuating discs causing the two discs to be uneven. I took actuating discs apart removed metal and re-assembled. It is now true all the way around.

I re-assembled the brake assembly with new discs and as soon as I put the outer brake housing into the axel housing all the contact surfaces touch and with any pressure from any of the bolts the axel housing is locked up.

The new discs are slightly thicker than the old discs (which look fine) so I re-assembled with the old discs and I have the same problem, any bolt pressure locks-up the axel housing, it will not turn around the axel.

The space between contact surfaces on the inner and outer brake housings is 2.175" as far as I can tell.
The thickness of the the entire brake assemble (with old brake discs) is 2.15"

There should be 0.020 of clearance between the top of the brake assembly and the contact surface of the inner brake housing but there is not. It is making full and even contact.

Sorry this is so long and thanks for any help.

I"ve never done this repair before but do you have the springs and balls in the actuating disc assembly? You didn"t mention that. Do you have the brake disc and the intermediate disc assembled in the proper order?

You might be able to holler for RickB, Bern or RodinNS. for help. These guys know the 10 series fords like the back of their hands.

Are the actuator ball ramps collapsing properly? If you had loose parts in there I suspect something may be buggered in the actuator...
There was also some parts change ups in the discs themselves over the years so hopefully you have the correct discs...
Still... the actuators are where I would start looking.

Rod

Thanks for the ideas.

I do have a service manual and I'm sure I have it assembled in the correct order. The springs are back in the actuators and the balls are all in the their detents. The actuator is extactly true all the way around, 1.45" ( i think, I'm at home and my measurements are at the farm). And the actuator is actually smaller than when it came out since I removed the intruding metal that made the actuator bulge about 0.025" at one area.

The new brake discs are actually bigger by about 0.05" each so after re-assembling with them and finding this problem I took it apart and put it back together with the old discs and still have this problem.

It doesn't make sense as the space between the two outer contact surfaces is a constant and can't get smaller. I put the same parts back in that I took out with a smaller actuating disc assembly and now it doesn't fit.

driving me crazy