8.25 carrier wear

pt70 said
Charles; Assemble the pinion with motor oil. Install yoke and tighten nut. You can use a 2 or 3 foot pipe wrench over the yoke and put the wrench handle over a leaf spring. Then use a 3/4'' drive set to tighten the nut. [Less springy than 1/2'']. Preload of pinion = 10 INCH pounds using old bearings, 20 - 35 inlb using new bearings. The original pinion bearing cone spacer might be ok to use if the stamped numbers on the end of the pinion gears are close [+1 vs +3 good enough ?]

I coated the bearings with high viscous lubricant, new crush sleeve, torqued the nut to 12 in/lbs for turning torque (old pinion bearings). I made some tools a few years back to do help with this. New bearings on the carrier, preloaded to have 0.007" of play. Didn't have to mess with the shims since pinion bearings weren't touched, wear pattern is where it's supposed to be on the teeth

Here's what I made to hold the pinion, slide a pipe or solid rod into the square tube and let it wedge against the ground.