Rear Pinion Seal

[xczar]

Baffled, ............ spent a bunch of time researching and asking questions on how to/if I should change my rear pinion seal. So from everything I saw on YouTube, the yoke nut was hard to get out. Most used a impact driver and one fellow, having no luck with that, used a breaker bar arrangement. I also heard one person say there should be no movement yoke when pushing up on the driveshaft.

So I carefully marked all the mating parts of my shaft connection to put it back exactly the way it was. Including the yoke nut and shaft. My dilemma is that my yoke nut was loose. And there is some play pushing the yoke around. I probably could hand tighten (with the 1 1/4" socket on) the nut an additional 1/4 turn from it`s original position. I don`t see any signs of wear around the area but am concerned of discrepancy of tightness of the yoke nut.

Anyone have experience with doing this? Last thing I need is a rear end job. Specially since I sprung for one at 60K miles at the GMC dealer.

 

[SunlitComet]

if it has been running like that and the bearing races are ok i would inspect the bearings and yoke and maybe replace those components. nut too.

 

[xczar]

Because my yoke nut was loose, I need to re-torque the whole thing with the crush spacer. So I go down to the dealer to buy a new crush washer and nut, then ask for the torque value. 470 lbs !!!!!

I said can that be right? He said he never heard of a value that high. I made him go ask one of the mechanics. He said "It could take that high amount to get the spacer to crush". I said, "What good is a torque spec then?".

These bearings better be good. The old GMC dealer I went to charged me $1000 for a bearing job!

Now I call GMC to get to the bottom of this torque spec for the crush spacer.

 

[SunlitComet]

old bearings: preload in 10-15 inch pounds. new bearings 20-25 in-lbs. don't think anything on the truck has a rating of 470ftlbs. even the pitman arm goes to just less then 190.

 

[xczar]

old bearings: preload in 10-15 inch pounds. new bearings 20-25 in-lbs.

Comet, .......... is the 10-15 in lbs preload the amount of torque measured at the turning yoke assembly (yoke nut) when all is assembled (shaft not attached), and wheels removed?

Sorry for the need of clarification. Just trying to get all my info strait.

---------- Post added at 04:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:06 PM ----------

Forgot to ask, ......... do you know the torque values for the differential cover plate (pumpkin) and the 4 bolts holding the u-joint together? I couldn't get a strait answer from them for those simple questions either.

 

[SunlitComet]

everything installed. with dial torque wrench turn the yoke nut and see that it stays in the desired range with the components moving.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cSWh1id9mY

---------- Post added at 02:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:28 PM ----------

should be 20 ftlbs for both.

 

[2000tahoeZ71]

It takes a shit ton of torque to crush the sleeve. Im talking 3/4 breaker bar with 4 foot cheater bar. The dealership did mine and called to tell me that they couldn't crush it and that my rearend must be bent and needed replacement. I had talked to a GM tech of 40 years and he said ********, they don't know what they're doing. He called and talked to them and bingo, they got it.

 

[xczar]

After talking with GMC directly, all they did was have my local dealer call me, as they did not have the info I wanted from the parts person I spoke with. So the local service manager calls and tells me he heard my conversation with the parts guy one counter away and couldn't understand the 470lbs spec either. Nice right? He let`s me walk out buying parts with no proper information I asked for. He goes on saying the 470 number is the maximum amount to crush the spacer. I said, shouldn`t the number be exact? How does one know to stop before the 470lbs? Said he didn't know.

So I called a couple friends that have their own shops, but live far away. With their suggestion, I simply tightened up a new yoke nut with Locktite just enough to take any movement out of the yoke when pushing it in all directions. Didn`t take much torque as I did not replace the old crush spacer. Seems to run fine now. I figure I`ll check the looseness of the yoke for a while and listen for any bearing noise if one should develop.

Comet. Those preload numbers I believe were the same as from the dealer. Thanks.

 

[SunlitComet]

if you don't get those preload numbers set correctly you are going to have serious problems. beware.