DESC center diff assembly

[RC John]

Can someone explain to me why the silver washer is placed after the E-clip on one side of the center diff? On all other diffs, the washer goes on before the e-clip. Is this a typo? The washer in question is the one with the big arrow in pic.
Also, my truck has the upgraded the center diff, and if you follow the assembly as shown there, the washer puts so much pressure on the bevel gears that the washer actually gets warpped. When I disassembled it, I found the washer is no longer flat, but coned.

[Andyp]

That drawing does look a little miss leading, when i put my centre diff in my Sc I just built it as the front and rear diffs are with the washer between the seal and the E clip. I did not notice the bit on the drawing that you did tho!

Surely the job of the washer is to slightly squeeze/ hold the seal so it don't leak

[RC John]

That's what I would assume as well, but I did try building it with the washer installed between the seal and E clip. When I did this, I noticed there was zero play on that shaft and a fair bit of friction when I rotate the shaft by hand. It didn't seem right.
Also, I was thinking that the reason for assembling it as shown on the drawing could be because the center diff has the combined load of both front and rear diffs and that Durango felt it was nessecary to add that washer to make sure the bevel gears are squeezed extra tight in the diff so they don't strip.
It would be nice to have someone from the team comment on this.