Yes by all means a new spacer is in order. Good luck.īcice.you are doing a full reinstall it sounds like. Stopping frequently to check for that 30 in/lb rotating resistance. Put the business end of the pipe wrench on the flange with the other end of the pipe wrench on mother earth (this assumes you will be doing this job whilst laying on your back) and wrench away. A giant pipe wrench will also work nicely. The tool companies make a jig that you bolt to the companion flange that allows you to counter torque while you tighten the nut but I am guessing you don't have one of those. Holding the companion flange in place while you are doing it certainly is. Developing 200 + lbs of torque is no problem. If you have no access to an air impact wrench then this job can be ugly. My air impact will definitely over crush the spacer so I am very careful. I use a 1/2" air impact to do that but I also know what I am doing. If you opt to replace the spacer be aware of the fact that preloading the spacer will take torquing the pinion nut to over 200 ft/lbs torque. I'd hate to see the pinion bearings fail over a spacer. All depends on how convenient you want this deal to be. Reassembly is no big deal since you can put the carrier back exactly as it came out. Thats what I would do for insurance sake. If you wanted to be cautious and replace the crush spacer it would require complete disassembly ie: axle's out, carrier out, pinion out. It was all over as soon as you loosened up that nut without making a reference mark. The only thing you can do is tighten up the pinion nut pretty tight and hope for the best. You are already in the soup and I am trying to bail you out. Good luckġ970 SS454 LS6 Chevelle, Damn! why did I sell that car?Įdlanta now you know why I hesitated to tell you how this is done. I sure wish we'd talked before you started this project. That will reestablish the proper preload. If you ever do that job again first take a cold chisel and "stake" (make a mark) the pinion nut and the yoke (Companion Flange) so that you can put the nut back in EXACTLY the same place it was when you loosened it. DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN! If you achieve 30 in/lbs STOP! and reinstall the drive shaft and be happy. I guess you might as well try to retighten the nut now and pray for the best. Those gears don't usually forgive being run out of true after their mating pattern has been established. That usually means ring and pinion failure too. You have to really be careful with this because improper preload leads to early bearing failure. I reuse the old spacer but my method is not for the uninitiated. I am not sure of what to advise you to do since I have my own way of replacing seals that I have had luck with over the years. You can try tightening the nut such that you have 30 inch pounds turning force or you can take the assembly apart and put a new "crush spacer" in and start over. The inch pound figure describes the turning force in inch pounds that represents the friction of turning the pinion with an inch pound torque wrench with no other drag on the pinion ie: the ring gear assembly. Those crush spacers don't really like to be crushed twice. Since you apparently didn't take any measures to "reference stake" the pinion nut you are now kinda in the woods for preload. EDLANTA there is a "crush" spacer between the two pinion bearings that when tightened properly gives you the proper bearing preload. That does not describe how tight the pinion nut needs to be however. I agree that the preload needs to be about 30 inch pounds.
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