A friend of mine put a pinion seal in my 93 f-150, and 2 u-joints in the rear driveshaft. I now have like a hum,whine, sounds like a bearing going out, (that very well could be), lots of miles on it. But it did'nt do it before, and if I don't have to buy a bearing kit for it, I would like not to. Any ideas? If I need to get thr rear end and axle bearing kit, where would a good place to get the complete kit/ thanks

 

You didn't tighten the pinion nut correctly. Take it to someone who knows what they are doing and have them set the "pinion bearing preload". Stop driving it or you will cause more damage. You really need to know what your doing when working on diffs. It's not real complicated it just needs to be done right.

 

Let me rephrase.....HE didn't tighten the pinion nut correctly.

 

That sounds better.
I'll take it to a shop and see what they can do. I was sort of thinking the same thing. Thanks

 

DITTO.....................DITTO................... .....DITTO
There is a crush sleeve in there that sometimes has to be replaced and recrushed to proper torque specs if it has been messed with by someone that isn't careful or fully understand what is between the pinion flange and the bearing.

There are several threads on this forum discussing this.

 

Read end wine? isnt that something you use in order to get another guy drunk and then.....

 

If it was torqued back to spec, it should be okay. I'd also suspect the new U-joints, where were they made? China?????

 

It can’t be torqued back to spec, At least not as in just tightening the nut to a given number. It has to be done with the axles out and with the differential in place.

Once the drive shaft and axles where removed the rotational force needed to turn the pinion in a “no load” state should have been measured and recorded before the nut was removed.
Then when the nut was reinstalled on the pinion it should have been tightened, a little at a time, stopping to re-measure the force needed until the previously recorded “no load” rotational force required to turn it is matched.

The no load rotational force is measured with a inch pound torque wrench.

If the rotational force measured before disassembly is found to be less then specified for the given axle it should be further tightened to the specified pre load for the axle.

If the rotational value is found to be higher than what is specified for a given axle the crush sleeve has to be replaced and the pre load reset again starting from scratch, simply backing off the pinion nut won’t work.

If it was set to tight, or not tight enough that's what is causing the noise you hear.

 

I talked to the person that I had do the joints etc. He said the reason, he had to replace the pinion seal, was because the nut had come loose somewhat. He said after replacing the seal, and putting everything back to factory spec, i guess he means torque etc, when the nut had worked out, it started a new wear area, thus putting it back to spec, its running on new/old meat on the ring/pinion. Does this make any sense? Should a guy just run it, or will i have to change the ring/pinion gear, bearings seal etc? Its a plow truck, and thats about all it does.

 

NO it does not.
With used bearings it needs to be set to 12-14 inch lbs of torque. It is done like danr1 said above except you do not have to pull the axles. But you do need to pull the hubs off. You would need a 3/4" drive ratchet with about a three foot cheater pipe on it to get up to 12-14 inch lbs. Never use an impact wrench on the rear end.





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Myself I’ve only set up one differential and it wasn’t fun, I had to replace the ring and pinion gear set in it and all the bearings. I did learn a lot about it doing so, it has to be just right so it will last. The gears are made to roll on each other like roller bearing, very exact and very smooth. Not just gear teeth catching on each other while they spin.

It was a 1978 f150 and it made no noise when I was done with it and never made any noise in the 10 of thousands of miles driven on it after that. I set it as specified and used 2 crush sleeves to get it right.

Yea the noise could go away, but it could also get worse.

The problem is where the pinion gear is meshing with the ring gear. It has to be in the center of it, pinion nut to tight over crushing the “crush sleeve” makes it to far forward. Or too loose, not crushing it enough makes it to far back. Either way to far and its making shavings. That’s probably what makes the noise you hear.

If he didn’t replace the crush sleeve and further tighten it from where it was to start with he might have crushed it to far, so now the pinion gear is to far forward in relation to the ring gear.

If he’s confident it will last and will stand behind it and repair it if it fails, leave it the way it is. Depends on how you feel about it, none of us can tell you that.

 

<i>except you do not have to pull the axles.</i>

No you do not have to, the book suggest doing so though to get the most accurate measurement of the pre load on the pinion.

 

Actually, the above isn't true...........................

Once you have the nut snugged up well, the gears are in proper alignment and the bearings are somewhat loaded.

The purpose of the crush sleeve is so that you can get the nut and shaft really super tight, secure and stable without overloading the bearings.

If the sleave is now properly crushed and the bearing properly loaded and whining, it was probably whining before.

Once you drive on a loose nut for a while, the gears wear at an improper angle and will never be the same.

 

thats basically what he said.

 

Aaah it been a long time but it's coming back to me, I had to buy a second crush sleeve because I had to re-shim to move the pinion back. Once I had set the pre load with it to far forward I could no longer use it.
For some reason I remembered the sleeve locating it, sorry bout that.
Yes netscaner is right, shims locate then pinion, not the sleeve.