Hi,
Despite my signature, I am now working on a 78 bronco. It has a ford 9" rear diff in it, and I have a small problem. The pinion seal has been leaking bad. I decided to do all of this, 2 days before I drive is 300 miles to Moab. I'm just driving there and back, no 4 wheeling at all.
So I borrowed a snap on inch pound torque wrench from a friend to measure rotational torque on the pinion nut, after removing drive shaft, rear wheels, and drums. The pinion yoke had no resistance at all, and spun like crazy. There was no play in or out, up or down, but it you twist quickly, you can feel some play there. The torque wrench would not read any resistance at all. So here is were I made a mistake. I removed nut, replaced seal, everything looked good and felt good. I did not mark the nut or anything. I did not replace the crush sleeve I read about after the fact. I am usually very good about researching things, but I guess I screwed up this time.
So now everything spins smooth, I have the pinion nut tightened down so there is a small amount of resistance. I drove it home last night, and there in a small vibration that is now gone. I suspect it was way too loose before. Everything feels good now, no noises or vibration.
Can I just torque the pinion nut down so I have about 10 inch pounds of force to rotate the assembly with wheels removed, etc.. ?
Or hold the yoke and torque to 150 foot pounds?
Unfortunately I cannot redo the whole thing because of having to order parts and time.

Any help on this would be much appreciated. Sorry for the super long post.

Brad

 

anyone? Sorry to be a pest but I only have tonight to work on it....

 

I'm a little confused, did you already tighten everything up or are you asking what to do?
I would tighten it up to til you have between 10-15in/lbs of force to rotate without wheels and everything removed. I have read before that people used their old crush sleeve's. If you put it back together then after a day of driving you should be able to hear whining or whirling if something isn't right.

 

Sounds good. I put it back together yesterday, with out replacing the crush sleeve. I tightened it up so it spun smooth, with out any play. I drove it about 30 miles since yesterday, and just pulled drive shaft to check for play and there is none. I hear no strange noises or vibrations. I tried putting the torque wrench on it yesterday, but it would not register. The whole assembly spin very, very easy with out the drums on. I already have it tighter than it was when I first took it off, so I didn't want to get carried away....I can re check it tomorrow for 10-15 in lbs if that would help. Thanks.

 

Awesome, as long as there is no noises then it should be good.

 

Great. Thanks a lot.