Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

Does anyone know if the rear axle pinion crush spacer can be replaced without removing the rear pinion seal?

I now have the spacer however since I do not have the car here I cannot see if the spacer can be replaced without removing the rear pinion seal. Hopefully I can simply remove the nut and pull the yoke off and then pull the spacer out with a needle nose pliers.

Since I do not want to commit my dads car to multiple weeks in the Packard Spa and Wellness Center (again) I am trying to plan accordingly...

Any tips or suggestions on this would be greatly appreciated!!!!

Bill

Yoke, seal, and outer bearing must come out. I have lost track--what are you trying to achieve?

Thanks for the info Ross.

I replaced the pinion seal and although I marked the location of the pinion nut when I removed it I somehow lost the mark when reinstalling the pinion nut and therefore I could not return the pinion nut to the exact same spot so the preload is no longer correct. The rear axle was quiet before and not it makes noise.

Is there a way to correct this without having to replace the crush sleeve?

THANKS Ross!!!

If the axle is quiet while pulling and noisy while coasting the nut is not tight enough and I would just tighten it a bit till the noise goes away. If the nut has been ovetightened in the past, you might need to replace some bearings. On axles that are well run-in, I have not had much luck achieving the factory specified drag.

You might be fortunate and get good results doing as Ross suggests, but as a generalization taking shortcuts and not doing the job as the shop manual recommends will more often than not result in less than satisfactory results, the consequence of which will be doing the job yet again, this time the right way.

Did Packard make their own differentials? Or are they Spicer or Dana or?

John

They made their own thru 1955. 1956 was Dana.

The pinion nut installation procedure in the Packard service manual assumes that the pinion is outside of the car. I do not intend on removing the rear axles and wish to simply replace the crush sleeve while the center section is still in the car.

Other than removing the brake drums I assume the two pound pool test would be applicable to the axle still being installed in the car?

I'm sure with all of the knowledge on this forum that somebody has done this while the center section is still in the rear axle assembly. Any tips or suggestions you might want to throw my way?

Do not remove the axles.....I have performed the re-adjustment procedure many times and it is very straightforward. Many of us have replaced a pinion seal on a Packard with the crush sleeve and it is not rocket science. You must however be confident in your own ability not to completely screw it up. So...don't put a rattle gun with 500 ft lbs available onto the pinion nut. You are dealing with a bearing set-up very similar to your front wheel bearings, for which you would tighten the wheel nut until the bearings (aka non-binding brake drum) shows some resistance then back off one castellation on the lock nut before you put the split pin in.
Essentially... You would only use a new sleeve if you have replaced the bearings, etc and were going to conduct a full overhaul.
The Packard manuals are of course very concise but predicated on the mantra that a qualified mechanic is reading them. Enter most of us on info.com with minimal mechanical qualifications but a huge reservoir of enthusiasm.
Essentially, when you put your rear axle pinion nut on and you have not recorded the emergent distance of the pinion flange from the nut. You should manually tighten the pinion nut until you have no fore and aft sliding motion in the pinion. You will feel this as you will physically be unable to push the pinion in and out of the ring gear. when you can no longer move it in and out you are in the critical adjustment area. The pinion nut tightening really is about 40 foot lbs and is a separate issue to the pinion mesh torque and you must check pinion mesh torque at each quarter tighten of the pinion nut. You should be able to discern when you meet the crush washer as the Torque wrench readings to drive the non brake dragging, off the ground axles, not tightening the pinion nut, will suddenly tighten up to around 30 inch pounds ( get an inch pound torque wrench...not very expensive but the adaptors can load up a bit).
Similar to wheel bearings, you want an extremely light preload and it is attainable if you can control the urge to tighen the heck out of things. Once again, the tightening of the pinion nut is a different operation to the measuring of the pinion mesh torque.

Other people may have better advice on this process, but it works for me.
Good luck and kudos to you for doing it yourself. PT

Thanks Peter,

So to clarify...tighten the pinion nut by hand until it feels like it has bottomed out the pinion to the ring gear (no forward or aft movement of the pinion shaft).

Then (this is the part that is unclear) tighten the pinion nut with a t wrench 1/4 turn then try to measure the pinion gear to ring gear mesh with a torque wrench and with the parking brake off, wheels off the ground, and no brake drag we are looking for 2 pound feet of torque.

If it is not 2 pound feet of torque then tighten pinion nut another 1/4 turn and then repeat until you (I) get 2 pound feet of torque.

So how do I determine if I have a Marsden nut or Hug-Lock nut?

THANKS AGAIN!!!