live4soccer7

I was wanting to replace the seal on the front diff where the yoke is. I know the nut is staked, but I couldn't budge the thing for my life. Is it reverse threaded by chance? Thought I'd ask before climbing back under there and gettin all dirty just to find out it's not and still can't get it off.

Staceman1

It is not reverse thread.
Impact gun is your friend here.

Tofer

the pinion nut? you'll have to reset your gears if you pull that off.... dont take it off

live4soccer7

It is the thing that the front drive shaft bolts to. The nut that holds that on. I have replaced the one that bolts to the transfer. It is definitely leaking. When I took my axle off to clean it and it just sat on the ground gravity was causing the oil to come out there. Either way it HAS to be replaced. Not quite sure what the pinion nut is, but if that is it then it would be nice to know. Can someone confirm that?

live4soccer7

here it is. This is on the front axle. I need to get the nut that is staked off. I just went and got an impact gun and it definitely didn't work (will use it for other things though). I got ratchet on it and used my jack to force the ratchet handle in the right direction and my truck began to move before anything happened and it is in gear w/brake. Any ideas on this one?

If someone can fix the title of this thread from "net" to "nut" that would be great.

jason191918

That thing was tight as all get up on my truck. In order for me to turn the nut, w/o moving my truck, I needed my dad to sit in the cab and hold the brake on. Even with him doing that, it still moved, so he needed to turn the truck on to get the power brakes to help. I was under it laying perpendicular to the truck, with my head on the passenger side. I put my feet against the front left tire and basically did a leg press w/ my largest breaker bar pointing down from the nut. Hope this helps.

(Make sure it is in Park/Neutral, and the parking brake is on)

live4soccer7

Well, I tried to do exactly what you said and I used every ounce of strength I had and it still didn't work. I've use an impact gun as well. I put the wrench parallel to the ground and placed the jack under the wrench handle and tried to turn it that way. Still no go. Not quite sure what I'm going to do.

a7mgte

x2 on the gear setup. Perhaps its a good thing it hasn't moved. It's critical to the life of the gears that when replaced, that nut is torqued to exactly the same position as it is now. So make sure you accurately scribe the nuts position on the pinion shaft before removing it. Otherwise the pinion bearing preload will be affected, and the bearings will fail from being too tight which will cause the gears to follow suit. If it's too loose they both begin to fail together. Because the the bearings break in just like any other moving part on your truck, if you're gonna error on this one...make it a little tight, but I wouldn't go more than 1/16 of a turn past your mark. When putting it back on, the previously staked part of the nut may be all messed up, so I'd throw some blue locktight on the threads to make sure it doesn't move on you.

As far as getting the nut off, there is a huge difference in the quality of impact guns. Namely the ones that come with compressors are extremely weak. Borrow a good quality one from a professional mechanic if you can. Otherwise it sounds like you may have to do it in a similar fashion to how I go about removing the crankshaft pulley bolt. (I put a breaker bar on it and then crank the engine over....yeah I know.) Put the truck on jack stands, throw it into 4 low, put your favorite breaker bar on the nut...and you guessed it, "drive" the nut loose. I can't think if you'll need 1st or reverse off the top of my head though, so check first.

PismoJoe

you could fab up something to bolt to the pinion flange to prevent it from turning. Like a long breaker bar with 2 bolt holes drilled through it, then you could bolt it to the flange and use to it to break the initial torque of the pinion nut.

Here's a good info page on the process http://4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTricks/...eal/index.html

live4soccer7

Ok, so that's some good info.

I did the one on the transfer case (for rear drive shaft) not long ago. I just screwed it back on and torqued it to spec in the FSM. Is that ok?

I may have to try driving it off. Pretty sketchy, but if it works then I'm all for it.

I'm not quite completely understanding your method Joe. Make a stop, so the flange won't move and then try and loosen it with the ratchet?

live4soccer7

so I haven't had time to do it yet, but was thinking about it and came up with the conclusion that you would have to move in reverse. When I was trying to take it off the whole thing was moving in a counter clockwise motion and the truck was rolling forward.

So if you think of a nut and bolt and how you would screw both ends (nut and bolt being held by both hands, one on each) to removed to move the nut as quick as possible you would move the bolt in the opposite direction or clockwise with respect the the side the nut is on. Not sure if that makes sense to anyone, but that's what I've come up with and if anyone can confirm that reverse would be it then that would definitely solidify the idea, otherwise I will go ahead and give it a shot and see what happens.

4Crawler

iTrader: (3)

Regular thread. I used a 3' long steel bar (1/8" or 3/16" x 2" wide) and drilled two holes along the edge to match up to two of the holes on the flange. Then bolt that to the flange and let it swing up to the frame or down to the ground.



Then use a breaker bar and I had to slip a 3' length of pipe over the handle to up the torque. It took lifting on that pipe clear from the ground almost to the frame before that nut broke free. Impact in gear does not work very well as the gears inside the case suck up all the impact.

live4soccer7

Thanks, Something similar to this also crossed my mind. I will have to see what materials I have. Thanks for the input.

live4soccer7

Well, I tried the bar with holes in it and it bent the bar and didn't move the nut at all.

Here is something I made up. Took a while, but had to get he measurements right for it to actually be effective. Should be obvious as to what it does. Don't harp on the welding. haha.

I put the bracket thing on there, then put a breaker bar on the socket and rested it between the frame and the leaf spring. After that I started the truck, put her in reverse, slowly gave it some gas, then some more, and finally it popped. Sounded like my gears blew up when it came loose, wasn't quite sure what to expect when I went to look and see what happened. It simply came loose and everything else was normal and good to go. Thanks for the help everyone.

I had to make this thing because I didn't want the socket to try and come off while there was weird torque on it from putting it in reverse. This way it was certain to not ruin the nut, or at least a lot more certain. lol


I do have another question though

Where is the crush sleeve? I took off the yoke and removed the seal and this is what I've got. I don't know what it looks like, but it just isn't anything I imagined, which is why I'm asking.

live4soccer7

I did the bolt on bar and it bent it bar. Did not work. This was truly the last option that I saw.

Any suggestions on putting the nut back on so that the pre-load will be pretty good? I remember when I took it off there was one full thread showing and you could see the second thread from the pinion shaft. Just want to make sure I get this thing put back on correctly. Thanks.

live4soccer7

What do you guys use to measure the bearing pre-load when putting the flange/pinion nut back on? Anyone have a specific item b/c I am having a tough time finding something.

Dingman

Well, I used an impact to get the nut off, changed the seal and put the nut back on where it was.

I didn't "re-do" the gears or anything, if there's a problem, I'm hoping with as much as I drive this thing (not much) that it will be years before I see a problem.

The seal must work well, this bearing as about 5 years worth of wheeling in mud\water and it looks clean clean clean.

live4soccer7

I will be driving mine quite a bit though, so I don't want it to develop a problem. Although, I probably won't be putting a of miles on it with the 4wd engaged or the hubs locked.

live4soccer7

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Is it best of to have the wheels off or leave as is and do it that way or what?

snobdds

I did this job two weeks ago on the rear end. I just un staked the nut and put an impact on it had it off in less than 1 minute. I just counted the number of exposed threads and marked where the stacked part of the nut should be. Then I put my torque wrench to 90ft/lbs and torqued it back up once the new seal was in. Everything lined up and I called it good. No problems and I have put about 2000 miles on the truck.