Re: Pinion seal torque spec

Posted by Jim On 2010/11/8 20:19:35

Going out on a limb here. I believe all are correct and result in the same basic outcome; the crush sleeve compressed and tapered bearings under the correct pressure to prevent radial and axial movement yet run free enough to not burn up with proper lubrication.

I personally go with the method mentioned of marking returning to the prior nut setting by marking the nut, pinion, and flange (yoke). Of course if it was loose prior to seal replacement, it will be loose after making it necessary to tighten further and obtain the proper drag. If the nut was previously grossly over torqued the crush sleeve is over crushed and rendered useless as far as allowing the bearings to be set to the correct preload and the pinion nut under enough torque to hold everything in place under dynamic load.

Ultimately, the 300 - 325 Ft/lbs is fairly typical for initial crush setting with fine tuning being done to get the proper drag. Marking and resetting is typical when everything was fine and a simple seal change is performed, and setting to proper drag if it was loose prior to seal replacement.

My advice in all of this is to clean the nut and pinion and use a liberal amount of red Loctite to ensure the nut doesn't back off. For some reason, this seems to be a universally annoying regardless the make.

Something that I learned recently thanks to Wade by way of Mal was have new gear sets lapped in. Never new of this, and don't think it necessary if the ring and pinion are matched sets, but will definitely look into the service if I install mystery ring and pinion sets in the future. Sure would beat a howling rear end!