Okay. I'm new to this solid axle business. Rather than crawl though years of these threads I want the up to date info on how to change one of these.

Bought a 1985 solid axle from a guy who never got around to his SAS project. I got it home, stripped off the rusty dust shields and bent tie rod. Got I it ready for a rebuild. Left it stored on jack stands in my second garage bay. Third member was supported by a separate jack stand. Borrowed that to change a buddy's CV axles. A week later I got back to sticking the jack stand under the now vertical third. Found gear oil all over the floor. Time to replace the pinion right?

Been trying to research how to do it properly.

Got confused.

Pirate 4x4 is a treacherous place for a mere layman and his vaguely specific Haynes manual.

Solid spacer vs crush ring? Please enlighten this guy. Preload? Torque specs...the hell?

 

Interested in this as well. Maybe ZUK will see this thread.

 

I certainly hope so! The rest of the axle is too easy to strip and rebuild. The pinion is the real bear trap in the glory hole though.

Watched a video where a guy uses an impact gun and on reassembly he stopped tightening on the first studder of the impact gun saying that would be the correct preload. That worried the hell out of me.

 

It has been my experience that the pinion nut can be tightened to at least 140fp without crushing the sleeve further and changing the existing preload.

'Your mileage may vary'

I degrease everything well and put things back together using loctite on the pinion splines and yoke, as well as on the pinion threads. I have changed several pinion seals, and all those thirds have given good service without noise or failure after being torqued to about 140fp.

I would like to hear from ZUK about his experience with what minimum torque is required to apply additional crush to a previously used crush sleeve.

The torque specs on the transfer case output yokes are only 95fp, as I recall, so 140fp should be plenty to keep the yoke tight on the pinion.

 

I agree with the above. Also you could remove with a torque wrench and that will give you a close #. While pinion preload is a specific defined # ~ it is impossible to measure with the ring gear in place. No shop or dealer disassembles an entire differential to change a pinion seal.

I've also seen guys mark the nut to pinion shaft and then count the rotations for removal and reset to the same place. I prefer torque to 100+. I don't use loc-tite, normally I just stake the nut.

 

Also #1 for a pinion seal leak (AND WAS my issue)....

Pull clean lube fix rebuild the differential vent (spring loaded check ball on top of axle).

Mine vent check ball was stuck and temp change caused it to vent through the pinion / seal location.

 

I have found the flanges and pinion nuts on the high mileage 3rd members I have handled all to be so loose as to need to be re-torqued.
None were tight enough to be simply reset to the same position or tightness.

For sure I stake the nut even though I use locktite also.