Pinion seal replacement?

[aldive]

I have finnaly got a leak. There is a small amount of dear end lube leaking from the area of the pinion seal.

I am going to replace it soon. Its been years since I have done this job. Any helpful hints and suggestions?

Thanks....

 

[Texan01]

Al if your '99 is like my '95 you need a 12 point 1/2"? socket or wrench and a large hammer to break the loc-tite bond to get the flange off.

After that it was fairly standard, I went ahead and changed the rear-end oil while I was at it since it had 100,000 miles on it and added new posi lube

I think once I got past the loctite it only took me an hour.

Enjoy!

 

[RiverRat]

Don't forget the crush sleve needs to be "crushed" again to get the right pinion bearing preload.

 

[aldive]

Originally posted by RiverRat
Don't forget the crush sleve needs to be "crushed" again to get the right pinion bearing preload.

Please explain....

Thanks

 

[RiverRat]

I'm pretty sure you rear diff has a crush sleve to adjust pinion bearing preload. If you take off the pinion nut and put it back on you run the risk of changing the preload. This can result in rear end failure.

To get it set up right you'd need to check the rotational torque of the pinion bearing before you take the flange off. Then after you are all done recheck it to make sure it's the same or slightly more. That is "by the book" way.

Or you can go get a impact and zip off the nut, replace the seal and zip it back on. I have seen that done many times and work ok.

Don't forget to index your driveshaft and flange before you take it all apart.

 

[utmustang88]

i checked the rotational torque of the shaft and it only read like 10-25 IN-LBS.... i was like wow that is not really a lot. so how tight do you have to make that nut to get the correct preload(to take the darn nut off it was 100FT LBS b.c it was rusted maybe? i thought by tightening the nut back up and getting the same rotational torque as before that would be the pre load for the bearing, then when you engage 4wd or whatever that will put the rest of the load on the bearing....sounds logical. i guess i'll see here in about 3 hours(saturday nov 1st) when i finish up my seal/yoke replacement.