Hey H.A.M.B.'ers So I went to change the pinion seal on my 3rd member last night and think I my have an issue. The pinion nut was damn near frozen onto the pinion shaft. So I warmed it slightly and flooded it with my Fav Oil "Kroil" After that I was able to pop the thing loose but with a ton of force to loosen it up. So much for trying to figure out the torque on the nut. That was what I was trying to do. So That's out, but I did count the number of turns that the nut took to completely come off the shaft. Cleaned all the stuff up and then installed the new seal. I put the nut back on to where I thought the thing should be for sure but now I have my doubts.... I checked my lash with an indicator before I started this whole thing and I had 0.005" of clearance. Now I have 0.011" So I'm thinking that I have potentially crushed the sleeve on the pinion just that much more and now have added clearance. The strange thing to me is that I thought for sure the pinion depth was established by the bearing seating into the rear race, that should be in a fixed location in the rear end housing? That would tell me that the only thing the front nut can effect is bearing pre-load NOT pinion depth, and/or, gear clearance???? This will go to the rear end shop Monday but I thought I might ask here first to see if I'm totally missing something. Please Help, Robert M.
btt. there must be tons of guys here who know all the settings...if not I can look in a book later. I would think an older rear like that uses shims either behind the rear bearing or under the race for setting depth. Then I would think it has a tube spacer and shims to set preload. Then adjusters on each carrier bearing to set backlash? ..anyways, someone will say the right info
The pinion nut should have torqued to something like 180/200 ft. lbs of torque. You are right that the bearings are seated in the races on the pinion shaft, so you shouldn't change your backlash when you tighten everything up again. The backlash should be .008 (plus or minus .002), so your .005 measurement sound a little tight, especially if this is a rear end that's been run. I really wouln't be worried with .011 on a rearend that's been run a while, but that's just me. Larry T
I just looked at a 1963 Motors manual. They don't give the torque specs or how to set it up, but: it shows a crush sleeve to set preload on the pinion bearings. It also shows the pinion depth set by a shim behind the big bearing. The gear backlash is adjusted by loosening the two carrier saddles and moving the ring gear carrier either way by adjusting the screw-in bearing adjusters. It does not say what the final preload should be on the carrier bearings, but I know it is a lesser amount on used bearings. Best I can do with my book
Wow Guys, Awesome.... I was reading a thread on another board that was discussing the bearing load as 25 In/Lbs. I now realize what that means... And Yeah I now know what that nut was a MF to get off last night. I think I may have measured the lash just a touch off and that 0.005" is not really what I'm starting with. The patter looks OK with grease on the gear face so I think I will recheck the torque on the nut and run the thing. Awesome response from all!!! Thanks So Much. The work on the Shop Truck will continue! Best Regards, Robert M,
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