Reading back over the FSM, it says to torque the pinion nut to 210ft/lbs
then measure the force needed to turn the pinion until it matched the
measurement taken before disassembly within 10in/lb. The problem we had
was the in/lb torque wrench never read any significant torque when
measuring it initially, and 210ft/lb didn't take up the slop in the
pinion by a long shot. Even after torquing the pinion nut to 250ft/lb,
there was still a lot of slop and the in/lb torque wrench didn't show
anything when we used it to spin the pinion. So as we had no
discernible torque reading before hand, we tightened the pinion nut
until the slop was taken up, which was probably in the range of 300
ft/lb. Even then there was no real measurable torque when we spun with
the in/lb torque wrench.
The pattern on the ring gear teeth looked good in final assembly when we
used marking compound, so as everyone has said, we got lucky.
Note that the yoke was supposed to be pulled with a special tool during
disassembly, but on this axle it fell off as soon as we took off the
pinion nut. There was slop in the pinion when we moved it up and down
before we even took the pinion nut off as well.
His fuel economy went up almost 2mpg when we were done too.
M.B.
On 2/27/2011 4:15 PM, Mike & Sharon Higgins wrote:
>
> It sounds like maybe you got lucky. While tightening the pinion nut a
> torque wrench is not needed, but eliminating the free play is. But
> what is needed is after the free play is eliminated, an INCH-POUND
> torque wrench is usually applied to the pinion nut, and the force
> necessary to turn the pinion gear is measured. The Ring Gear should
> not be in place, so you will be turning only the pinion gear. Usually,
> the only time you replace the Crush Sleeve is when you replace the
> pinion bearings, so you'd be setting the tension on the pinion without
> the ring gear anyway.
>
> I'm glad that your outcome has been successful.
>
> Mike Higgins
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "M.B." <mailinglists@moparhowto.com>
> To: <dakota-truck@dakota-truck.net>
> Sent: Sunday, February 27, 2011 4:53 PM
> Subject: Re: DML: While we're talking about automatic transmissions...
>
>
>>
>> Heck if I remember the terminology, it was 98 degrees out at the time
>> and I was more worried about not burning myself by touching any metal
>> surface nearby and not collapsing from heat exhaustion. That black
>> anti-rust coating they put on the frame is really good at getting up
>> to skin-scalding temps in direct sunlight.
>>
>> I just remember we had to tighten the pinion nut to a certain torque
>> that was over 250ft/lbs and had to "guess" past that point because we
>> maxed out the torque wrench before the pinion nut was snug enough to
>> not have a ton of play.
>>
>> He's driven it a few thousand miles and towed a loaded trailer that
>> was so over the GCVW limit of the truck (the thing was made from
>> parts off a mobile home, including the axles and tires) that he had
>> to downshift to second to go up mild hills and it's still quiet and
>> in one piece, so I guess we got lucky. :)
>>
>> M.B.
>>
>>
>> On 2/27/2011 11:18 AM, Michael Maskalans wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> On Feb 26, 2011, at 12:19 AM, <mailinglists@moparhowto.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Sure was fun finding a torque wrench that went over 250ft/lb to
>>>> set the crush sleeve.
>>>
>>> Crush sleeves aren't set by torque.... they're set by preload.
>>>
>>> but if you had success I'm sure you did it right anyway :)
>>>
>>> Mike
>>>
>>
>>
>
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