femtnmax
Well-Known Member
So the pinion seal is leaking and need replaced.
Before removing the pinion gear nut, take a center punch and mark the end of the pinion gear and mark the nut right next to where the gear was marked. These are your ‘locators’ for when you reinstall the nut.
If your using an impact wrench to remove and install the nut, back the wrench torque OFF so that the nut cannot be removed, then step by step increase the wrench torque until after a few “rattles” of the impact gun the nut comes off…Count the ‘rattles’ is how we used to do it. Then replace the pinion seal. When you go back together use the same setting on the impact gun, and again ‘count’ the ‘rattles’ so the final torque of the nut is the same as before it was removed. Also check that the two punch marks are in alignment, meaning the nut is reinstalled at exactly the same position.
This works well for shim type pinion nut preload such as the Dana 60 shown in the photo, and also works very well for pinion gears with a collapsible spacer/crush sleeve. Again, reinstall the nut to the exact location is was before removal and the crush sleeve is back to the same ‘crush’ as before. IN the photo I marked the punch marks with white chalk.
To replace a pinion seal at the dealership I used to work at we would mark the gear and nut with a yellow grease crayon, then count the rattles of the impact gun when removing and reinstalling the nut. Then do a final visual check to verify the grease marks line up and the job was done. We never had any issues with pinion preload, noise, etc doing the job this way...did it for years.
For the pinion nut in the photo, my air compressor wont run my old half inch impact gun, so I turned the nut with a pipe wrench on the U-joint flange and half inch breaker bar with cheater pipe on the nut socket. The three quarter socket I have was too large a diameter to correctly bite on the pinion nut, thus was stuck with the half inch drive stuff.
Watch those cheater pipes, they put a lot of strain on the breaker bar swivel joint. I was there when a swivel came apart once...when the swivel exploded the pieces took several of the other mechanics front teeth out. Two of us were pulling on the cheater and it was just dumb luck I wasn’t hurt; and no one lost an eye. We were removing the large brake drum nut on the rear axle of a VW bug.
IF you have an old rag, wrap it tightly around the swivel, then wrap a bunch of tape around the rag if you need to, then go for the cheater.
Before removing the pinion gear nut, take a center punch and mark the end of the pinion gear and mark the nut right next to where the gear was marked. These are your ‘locators’ for when you reinstall the nut.
If your using an impact wrench to remove and install the nut, back the wrench torque OFF so that the nut cannot be removed, then step by step increase the wrench torque until after a few “rattles” of the impact gun the nut comes off…Count the ‘rattles’ is how we used to do it. Then replace the pinion seal. When you go back together use the same setting on the impact gun, and again ‘count’ the ‘rattles’ so the final torque of the nut is the same as before it was removed. Also check that the two punch marks are in alignment, meaning the nut is reinstalled at exactly the same position.
This works well for shim type pinion nut preload such as the Dana 60 shown in the photo, and also works very well for pinion gears with a collapsible spacer/crush sleeve. Again, reinstall the nut to the exact location is was before removal and the crush sleeve is back to the same ‘crush’ as before. IN the photo I marked the punch marks with white chalk.
To replace a pinion seal at the dealership I used to work at we would mark the gear and nut with a yellow grease crayon, then count the rattles of the impact gun when removing and reinstalling the nut. Then do a final visual check to verify the grease marks line up and the job was done. We never had any issues with pinion preload, noise, etc doing the job this way...did it for years.
For the pinion nut in the photo, my air compressor wont run my old half inch impact gun, so I turned the nut with a pipe wrench on the U-joint flange and half inch breaker bar with cheater pipe on the nut socket. The three quarter socket I have was too large a diameter to correctly bite on the pinion nut, thus was stuck with the half inch drive stuff.
Watch those cheater pipes, they put a lot of strain on the breaker bar swivel joint. I was there when a swivel came apart once...when the swivel exploded the pieces took several of the other mechanics front teeth out. Two of us were pulling on the cheater and it was just dumb luck I wasn’t hurt; and no one lost an eye. We were removing the large brake drum nut on the rear axle of a VW bug.
IF you have an old rag, wrap it tightly around the swivel, then wrap a bunch of tape around the rag if you need to, then go for the cheater.
