So i had the normal leaking pinion seal and me in my infinite wisdom just pulled the whole thing apart then decided to read up on actually what i was doing. Needless to say i took no torque readings and didn't bother to mark where it stopped. When putting it back on i tightened the nut about a quarter turn past when it got hard (so tightened it about a quarter turn with a cheater pipe.)

Needless to say now that i've read up on it i think i should replace the crush sleeve with a non crush sleeve and shims. However i need the truck to drive about 4 freeway hours this week and wont have time to get to it. Am i going to damage anything by doing this?
Also is there a way to check the pinion preload with the diff in the truck?

Needless to say im an a recovering idiot and would like to do it right. Currently the truck drives fine with no weird vibrations or noises.

 

Also where does one get the sleeve and shims to do it correctly?

 

it would be cheaper for you to have someone re set up your third than to buy the stuff you need to unfubar your mistake.
check out gearinstalls.com if you still want to tackle it yourself

as far as kits, east coast gear, randy's ring and pinion etc will have the minor and master install kids

 

Thanks for the response, i gave my local rear end shop a call. I figured that id check the preload while i'm pulling the carrier to take it to them. Only problem is that my torque wrench sucks and doesn't have marks under 10 ft lbs. I can spin the whole axle with the wrench set well under 10 ft lbs however if i drop the wrench to the lowest setting it will click every time. If i grab the flange it does feel hard to turn by hand, but is still turnable. Im going to try and locate a dial type torque wrench and get a real number. Im not trying to make this 3rd last forever as i am looking to do the elocker swap. If the preload comes between 5-7 ft lbs you guys think i can get away with it at least for a little while. If not i have the rear end shop ready for me.

 

Id run it.

Whats your gear ratio? Might not be a bad idea to pick up a spare 3rd and rebuild it for a back up. Or just motivation to get the e locker swap going faster.

 

You have to remember that with the carrier installed in the 3rd, the preload that you measure at the pinion is the sum of both the pinion bearing and the carrier bearing preloads, not just the pinion preload.
When I have removed the drive flanges on a couple different toyota 3rds to change out pinion seals, I have retorqued the pinion nuts to as much as 140fp without increasing the original preload any.
The companion flange torque specs on transfer cases is only 80 to 100fp, so I would expect that anything around 100fp would be tight enough to keep the pinion bearings set, and the companion flange on tight.
I would be interested in hearing an expert (can you hear this Zuk??) speak on the minimum torque that he has seen, that has added additional crush to a used crush sleeve.
In my limited experience, it's more than 140fp.

 

Got my hands on a beam wrench, i can turn it just between 7-5 ft lbs seems like it is within spec, this is turning within the slop of the gears (turning the drive shaft flange but not the wheels.) I'm inclined to leave it alone. Seem within reason? Its got 4.10 gears in it.

 

If it's not making any noise, keep running it.

 

I agree with millball ( as usual). Run it. Mine made noise after I replaced the pinion seal the right way. Well, I guess the right way is to disassemble it but I marked the nut and checked the torque first. I retorqued the nut to 145 ft lbs. and it's pretty quiet. I've driven it hard for 6 mos. with no further problems. Like you I plan to upgrade when it's used up. It's not that critical on a truck like mine with a quarter of a million miles on it anyway.

 

For reference i just made it from SF to LA with no issues, so i think its gonna last, im already searching for that elocker though.