Help! Pinion Bearing question

[PrairieDrifter]

Thanks for all the advice guys.

Here is what happened. I marked the housing and pinion nut with paint before removing the nut. While the nut was off, I noticed the pinion had some play in it. I thought that it was because the nut was off. I replaced the seal and tightened the nut back to the marks. The pinion was still loose. I tightened it a little further and it was still loose.

I am thinking that the bearing was worn which is why it started leaking. I never checked the pinion before taking the nut off. That was a mistake on my part. However I really never thought that it would be loose. This was an assumption on my part and we all know what that means. This is where the project stands as of now.

I just got my torque wrench though. I need to pick up a bearing separator now.

I am thinking about trying to tighten the pinion with the torque wrench just to see what the reading is when the pinion turns. I don't see how it could hurt. Maybe it just needs tightened. Yeah. Right. It can't be that easy.

I think 9 times out of 10 you wont be able to make the old crush sleeve work, if you're feeling ambitious you could just try installing a new crush sleeve and see what happens?
I don't blame you for not checking the pinion before you started taking **** apart! Ive done it many times, you get so into fixing what you see you forget to check for stuff that you don't see!

I know one of the other members had an axle issue I cant remember what was wrong exactly, but he snugged up the pinion nut and got it to work (not sure if it still is working or not) but sometimes you may get lucky and sometimes maybe not.

If you want to get really creative you can lift the axle up, pull the axle shafts out, and try getting your bearing preload to the correct spec, being its probably original maybe some of the bearings and shims have settled and you can crush the sleeve a tiny bit more to get the pinion tight

 

[Don5]

Mason, I already have it up on stands and the axle shafts are out. The cover is off as well. I am going through the front end. If I can tighten the nut to correct preload and have the bearing tight, I will be very happy. I still have to pull the carrier out since I am replacing the axle seals.

 

[PrairieDrifter]

Mason, I already have it up on stands and the axle shafts are out. The cover is off as well. I am going through the front end. If I can tighten the nut to correct preload and have the bearing tight, I will be very happy. I still have to pull the carrier out since I am replacing the axle seals.

You shouldn't have to pull the carrier to do the axle seals, I may be mistaken on these axles though, I haven't pulled apart a front axle yet on these old trucks, is there an inner seal near the carrier also?

 

[flyboy1100]

You shouldn't have to pull the carrier to do the axle seals, I may be mistaken on these axles though, I haven't pulled apart a front axle yet on these old trucks, is there an inner seal near the carrier also?

That sounds correct since the gear lube is only lubricating the the gears for the front.

 

[flyboy1100]

Thanks for all the advice guys.

Here is what happened. I marked the housing and pinion nut with paint before removing the nut. While the nut was off, I noticed the pinion had some play in it. I thought that it was because the nut was off. I replaced the seal and tightened the nut back to the marks. The pinion was still loose. I tightened it a little further and it was still loose.

I am thinking that the bearing was worn which is why it started leaking. I never checked the pinion before taking the nut off. That was a mistake on my part. However I really never thought that it would be loose. This was an assumption on my part and we all know what that means. This is where the project stands as of now.

I just got my torque wrench though. I need to pick up a bearing separator now.

I am thinking about trying to tighten the pinion with the torque wrench just to see what the reading is when the pinion turns. I don't see how it could hurt. Maybe it just needs tightened. Yeah. Right. It can't be that easy.

Remember preload on used bearings is less than new bearings.

You only use the torque wrench to check preload unless you are talking about the crush sleeve.

I'm a little annoyed my pinion seal started leaking after about 2k miles after my rebuild, but I checked everything and it is still tight and it is just weeping enough to get the outside wet, maybe I just have it overfilled?

 

[MannyDantyla]

You can loan a bearing press kit from Oreilly's for free

 

[Don5]

That's also correct for the torque wrench because you're measuring the rotational force the beam style will tell you how much force you're using while you have to set the torque on the click type.

This makes absolute sense. I meant to type this earlier in the thread. Thanks for the explanation Mason!

 

[Don5]

Here is a pic of the front diff. It is a 1978 Dana 44. The carrier has to be removed so the inner axle seals can be knocked out and replaced. Notice that each bearing cap is marked as well as the top bolts. This will assure the bolts and bearing cap get put back in their original place.

 

[MannyDantyla]

Doesn't look like the pinion was so loose it fell back and hit the carrier, that's what happened to my rear diff. So thats good at least.

 

[PrairieDrifter]

Doesn't look like the pinion was so loose it fell back and hit the carrier, that's what happened to my rear diff. So thats good at least.

LOL you were the one I was talking about earlier! No problems with it since you fixed it?

 

[PrairieDrifter]

This makes absolute sense. I meant to type this earlier in the thread. Thanks for the explanation Mason!

No problem I have not done one of these front axles yet so thanks for confirming my hunch about the inner seal! I had to think about it for a second!

 

[Don5]

Ok so we got the carrier out. We put it on the bench and I tried to pull the bearing off by hand. It came off! Uh oh.Hmmm. So I looked at the three shims. The inner one was cracked in half! So it was a good thing that we had to pull the carrier out. Now the other side is on tight. So I wlll have to use a bearing separator.

So here is a list of tools I have acquired for this project.

- Inch pound Beam Torque wrench -used
- Bearing Seperator kit 2&3 inch Bearings - HF
- Large Bearing Seperator - HF
- Dial Indicator and magnetic Base - HF
- Bearing and seal Driver kit -HF

HF has been running a sale all weekend. I have been in there 3 days straight using a 20% off coupon and picking up their free tennis racket bug zapper. I am going to give a couple away as Christmas gifts to my BIL.

The good news is that I now have some more tools.
The bad news is that they cost me money that I did not intend on spending! D*** it!

I am still not sure if I am going to have to buy a 4 ft pipe wrench for the pinion yoke.

Stay tuned as I will be posting some pics later.

Oh yeah we got the Spartan locker in. We had to take the ring gear off to do it though.

 

[MannyDantyla]

It will all be worth it I'm sure

 

[Don5]

Ok I am DONE f***ing with this thing today! I am ready to beat my head against a tree. I am not happy at all. This ring and pinion has had some problems.

Ok on the carrier end.

On one side the bearings race and shims fall off of it. On the other side they are tighter than bark on a tree. We get them pulled off. I find the right thickness and press them back on. Everything goes OK. The new bearings on the lose side still fall off. This tells me there was some slop on the carrier journal itself. Great. Nothing I can do now. BTW- the old bearings had Timken on one side and some Japanese bearing on the other.

Now onto the pinion side.

The news does not get any better. I get it out. I find there are shims between the race next to the gear, or bottom race, and the actual lip on the housing. WTF? Is this normal? Hell I don't know. Someone that knows more than me please weigh in and tell me.
Ok so moving on, we get the pinion out on the bench. I am looking at it and I do not see any crush sleeve anywhere on the shaft. OK ahh Hmm. Is this normal? I have studied this for quite awhile now and I am wondering if someone put a crush sleeve eliminator kit in? I found shims on the inside of the upper bearing also.

I have owned this frontend since 1990. It has been sitting until 1992 when I put it in. Did they make a crush sleeve eliminator kit back then?

Anyways we cleaned the inside of the housing out with brake cleaner. We found some metal in the bottom toward the pinion end of the housing. I ran a flex magnet in there until it was clean. There was not a lot of metal though.

Ok so here is the good news. The ring gear and pinion are Ok. They do not have any chipped teeth or look worn. So I think we should be ok in that aspect. Any experts please feel free to weigh into this thread and give me your advice. As you can tell I am not too experienced with setting up a ring and pinion. Yeah I am sure my BP is up. I am ready to start throwing some wrenches.

 

[flyboy1100]

There should be shims between the lower bearing and the pinion gear. You use those shims plus carrier shims to set the gear lash.

I made a setup bearing so I wouldn't have to take my actual bearing on/off like 30 times to set the lash. Worked great, but horribly tedious work