My understanding of endfloat and the need to measure it is this- when you put the shaft and bearing back in the housing ( i.e. when you put the box back together)there will be a small gap between the bearing and the housing, if left as a gap the bearing can try to move into that gap when under load and put a strain on the bearing in a sideways motion thus damaging the bearing. A shim is a small piece of metal shaped like a disk which is used to fill that gap and thus preveent the bearing from makming that very undesirable movement. Only problem is that you don't see that gap as it is only until after assembly that the gap exists and then it is inside your gearbox invisible to yourself, so you have to estiumate it using a precisely measured plate which bolts on in place of the housing. This plate has holes going right throough it to accomodate the bearings, by using the measured thickness of the plate and by measuring how far beyond the plate the bearings will extend it is possible to ascertain what thickness of a shim you will need to fill the gap between the bearing and the housing in your final assembly.
Thats my understanding of it, I may be wrong as I am no expert and have never actually carried out this procedure.
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