rear end pinion seal replacement

johnbeck · Mar 20, 2019

I need to replace my 1973's leaking rear end pinion seal. Looked on Youtube -couldn't find a good video with adequate information(I recently was watching a Bronco video replacing an inner wheel bearing and the clown didn't install the the inner bearing seal). What's the right way to put the nut back on? Thanks

SteveL · Mar 20, 2019

I've seen guys count turns removing and re-installing the nut but the thought of screwing up the pinion pinion depth or preload makes me nervous. If you know it has a solid spacer you can probably just torque it to spec.. hopefully some others will chime in.

bronkenn · Mar 20, 2019

I have had to do it while on vacation at a campground and I marked the nut and removed it, replaced the seal and tightened back to the same spot and it was fine. Drove it many miles after that with no issues. It was on a '88 F350

garberz · Mar 20, 2019

johnbeck said:
.... What's the right way to put the nut back on? Thanks

Remove the pinion support and measure the pinion bearing preload. The crush sleeve will crush somewhere around 175ft.lbs. You’d be better off changing over to a solid spacer instead of the crush sleeve. It makes changing this seal a simple job. But the main reason is it won’t crush under load, which isn’t too tough with large tires and low gearing. Crush sleeve spec. is 15-20 in.lbs of rotational drag. If you change over to a solid spacer, tighten up the pinion nut to 200ft.lbs.

Mark

JB Fab · Mar 22, 2019

garberz said:
Remove the pinion support and measure the pinion bearing preload. The crush sleeve will crush somewhere around 175ft.lbs. You’d be better off changing over to a solid spacer instead of the crush sleeve. It makes changing this seal a simple job. But the main reason is it won’t crush under load, which isn’t too tough with large tires and low gearing. Crush sleeve spec. is 15-20 in.lbs of rotational drag. If you change over to a solid spacer, tighten up the pinion nut to 200ft.lbs.

Mark

Make sure to measure the rotational drag without the seal installed.
Avoid using crush collars whenever you can, they are marginal in a stock application. The reason they were used was to speed up the production process.

rear end pinion seal replacement

johnbeck

Sr. Member

SteveL

Huge chevy guy

bronkenn

Bronco Guy

garberz

Bronco Influencer

JB Fab

Bronco Guru

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