Very difficultly. LOL. The problem is you need a long bar to tighten the nut. Of course, if your working under the truck, you dont have much room to swing it. If you relie on the tires to hold the ring gear, you wont have enough swing. (youd be surprized how much the truck will flex as you apply torque.) Some guys use a impact. I dont like that because you are hammering on the gears. I know they dont allow that on aircraft. I have alot of experince with helicopter transmissions.

Heres the best way I have found. After you remove the driveshaft, put a big pipe wrench on the yoke. The wrench should be long enough to reach the ground or to the frame. Then use the long bar on the nut. That way, you dont have to hold the pipe wrench while your pulling with both hands. in thorey, you could use an impact while holding the yoke like this, but there your gears if the wrench slips.

 

I have never done an 8.8, but have set up a couple of 9" chunks. I would imagine the torque figures for the pinion nut are close to the same.

As helirich said about holding the pinion yoke and using a good "cheater" bar on a good pull handle with a socket. I agree about not using an impact wrench---might be a few who disagree with that

There is a "crush" sleeve on the pinion shaft, between the 2 pinion roller bearings. It is a "throwaway" and should be replaced every time the pinion nut is loosened.

As you tighten down the pinion nut, it pulls the flange/yoke in. It is the crush sleeve that keeps the back tension against the nut as you take up the bearing slack of the pinion shaft. You are supposed to tighten the pinion nut until it only takes 4-5 in/lbs to turn the pinion shaft, This is before the ring gear is installed. If I recall correctly on the 9", it should take a MINIMUM of 175 ft/lbs of torque to start crushing the sleeve down until all the loose play in the pinion bearings is gone and the correct preload is reached to turn the pinion shaft.

Dont take my figures as all correct, you should look at an assembly procedure somewhere---it was 9" chunks and has been a while This hopefully gives you a little better picture of whats involved. The real fun part is correctly setting the pinion depth on these integral carriers , then the backlash and patterning the gears. LOL

BTW--Rich or anyone, have you ever used the solid spacer instead of the crush sleeve?

 

I have never used a solid spacer. I dont see how that would work. The purpose of the crush sleeve is to keep the two inner races from turning. Its hard to believe, but a bearing will turn on a shaft and cut it off. (the shaft)The outer races are pressed in so they dont turn. if the inner races were pressed on the pinion, you wouldnt need the sleeve. But that would make installation and tear down very difficult. The 175 ft/lbs is just a guess and to crush the sleeve. Your not really putting that much torque on the bearing. Ive always wondered if you could put a thin washer (1/16") on next to a used crush sleeve and crush it a little more. Is this what you mean by solid spacer?

 

The solid spacer is actually a solid piece that goes where the crush sleeve went, between the races (actually contacts the inner races which is also what the bearings are caged on. The solid spacer is short enough so that shims have to be used to keep it from binding the bearings. Just like setting up pinion shims, the spacer shims have to be experimented with to get correct spacing.

You remove the shims until the pinion nut tightens hard against the spacer and shim pack at the correct pinion pre-load. The pinion nut still is at ~200 ft lbs at that point (I think thats about right). The advantage is that once you get the spacer and shims just right, you can disassemble the pinion and reassemble it without having to set up again. I think that on new bearings, you may set pinion pre-load slightly high for wear-in.

I just looked at a "Precision Gear" instruction sheet for some 3.73's that went into a 90 stang and it says that a crush sleeve should take at least 180 # to start crushing it down until pinion pre-load is reached. If the sleeve starts to crush at anything less, throw it away and get another.

I wonder myself why you couldnt add a slight shim at the sleeve to re-use it. Maybe they will only crush so far--. Maybe the solids are more reliable for some reason. I think solid spacers are for people that race and are into the gears a lot because you dont have to round up new parts, except for swapping shims. I am not the expert, for sure, havnt used one.

I think the SVO catalogs used to show them, dont know about the newer catalogs.

Dont know why I worry about these things----I cant even find time to replace my @#$% FPR!!

 

I'm sorry to insult some but the 8.8 rear and front would be the best ever for the Bronco. Talking about moving it to a 9 is cost and silly to do.

I would certainly check the pinion nut and if you feel it is needed, replace the rear axle bearings. This can be a pain but the Chiltons shows an easy way to pull the bearings.

 

When did the bronco use 8.8 in the front instead of D44?

 

The 8.8 front end started with the 97 F-150s/expedition 4wd. Dana 44 was the front end until 96.

 

Thats why I like this site Learn something new every time! Good thing I didnt put up a paycheck.

Is the 8.8 front anywhere close to mounting the same as the IFS 44?

 

No, you would have to change the front end to the SLA front ends found on the 97 and up 1/2 tons for it to fit. The TTB front ends of the earlier trucks could be made to work with it but why would you want to go such a difficult route of front ends?

 

a 90 8.8 would work in your 94 since it has the abs sensor on top of the pumpkin just like your 94 did. i would say that 150 for that diff is a bit high though unless its been gone thru at least. the reason i mentioned those other years for simplicity and such. you can also swap in a sterling 10.25 or 10.50 rear diff as long as it has the tone ring/abs sensor in your 94.

 

Just to clarify---
I never said I wanted to put a 9" in my bronco, instead of the 8.8. The end ftg's and 9" bearings---maybe. I did not say that I wanted to change the front D44 to anything else.

Since it was new to me, using the later 8.8 info was just for my information, maybe someone else might consider it. I certainly wouldnt attempt a SLA conversion to do it---even if I wanted an 8.8. In fact, no harder than I am (I dont Rock Crawl or Mud Bog etc) I wont even do a straight 44/60/70. But tx for the info---

 

I learned two things in this one thred. Solid spacers and 8.8 in front. I'm with you Ben, I build alot of trucks- in my mind! I might never start one, but I still want it to be right. LOL

 

Way high.

I'd need to look up my invoice for the exact price,but I think I paid between $300 - $500 for an 8.8" from a junkyard. With about 80k - 90k put on it already, I think I made a good deal.

It takes some tinkering and tools, but the 8.8" can be fixed by an average shade tree mechanic. I kept my old one and plan to fix and re-gear it with a different ratio. Mine has a broken bolt in it, and I had to buy a special removal tool for that. ($40 or so)

 

I recently had a problem with the 8.8 in my F150. Hope this helps.

It started making a growling noise from the rear that just got louder and louder. I pulled the cover, centering pin, spider gears and axles. Checked the backlash between the ring and pinion. Specs say anywhere from .006" to .015" is o.k. Well, that was a hair over, around 022". Removed the differential bearing caps and took out the differential to inspect.

Upon cleaning the differential and bearing caps up I noticed the drivers side cap was worn down on the interior quite a bit. Looked at the mating race surface inside the rear end and that was worn down too. The differential bearing on that side somehow worked loose and the race was spinning on the inside of the cap, just grinding away at the rear end housing. As the gap got bigger, the noise got louder. The measurement for interior cap to housing should be 3.063. This was oblonged up to 3.135 in one place.

So that rear end housing was no longer any good. I went to a local junk yard and found a decent replacement rear end for $150 bucks. I checked the differential caps to make sure they were tight prior to purchasing. Brought it home, tore it apart, steam cleaned it, sanded it and painted it. Ordered the entire bearing replacement kit and ring and pinion from jawsgear.com and bought outer axle bearings and seals locally.

Rebuilt it and installed it. Rolls like a stone. A nice quiet stone.

PS. for the guy wanting to torque the pinion nut again. You can't just torque this nut. The pinion bearings need a specific in/lb rotational torque applied by tighten this nut against the cruch sleeve. So, if your in this deep you probably already know what your doing. If not, don't mess with it.

 

My bronco is making noise and I thought about replacing the outer axle brgs----but am afraid that the carrier brgs may need replacing also. Looks like a high milage 8.8 needs to be completely checked, because all clearances are affected. A spinning carrier race sounds like it could have been from not enough tension from the original shim pack, maybe from a lot of bearing wear. You are supposed to have to kinda "drive" the last one in and they make a tool for that. I do know that the larger Dana's (60/61/70 etc) require a "case spreader" for the correct shim pack installation. Dont recall ever seeing that a case spreader is absolutely required for the 8.8 (or 7.5).

First thing "next" Monday I am going to get right on that-----