Is there a way to remove the frontward pinion bearing
without pulling the differential ?

 

Nope, when the bearing is installed it seats into the race tight. Some bearings acutally weld themselfs onto the pinion gear making is a real PITA to pull the pinion gear. The carrier has to come out, sorry.

 

Thanks SSC

 

Not to mention you'll want to replace the bearing race as well, which will require dissasembly of the rear.

 

Not this time...
The bearings are fairly new (5k or so)
I am trying to reduce a little noise in the rear end.
My guess is that the pinion bearing preload is not set
correctly. ( less than 20 in/lbs for the entire assembly )

So I pulled a shim out (pinion bearing preload spacer,
not a crush sleeve)

I'll finish reassembly tommorow, to burnt to continue tonight

Thanks
al

 

Oh yea, those spacer are hard to get just right...

I swear you can sand the surface for 10 seconds, and that will increase your preload by 5in/#!!!
Can't remember what I set mine at, but 20ish @ 150fp sounds right.



Ron

 

Are you talking about the shim or the crush sleeve? Neither one affects preload. The preload is set by the pinion nut. If you want to increase the pinion preload just tighten the nut. (you'll need to but a lot of grunt into it to crush the crush sleeve)

Removing the shim will destroy your gear pattern. Do not do this. You may be mistakenly doing this so that you can tighten the pinion nut easier. The crush sleeve (the ~.5" spacer) is designed to keep a force on the tail bearing inner race so that it doesn't spin relitive to the pinion gear. The crush sleeve compresses when you tighten the pinion nut. This is why it requires so much force to tighten the pinion nut.

 

It's a whole lot easier if you trash the whole crush sleeve crap, and get a solid spacer with selectable shims for the preload. Ratech part # 4111 IIRC. About $15, and worth every penny of it.

 

...yea where talking about a solid spacer or crush sleeve eliminator, and not the pinion bearing shims.

----
Yeap, that's what I used was the Ratech solid spacer.

Ron

 

Back in business....
I reduced the spacer shim thickness by about .010 inch
(.573 to around .564)
The pinion preload is still under twenty five inch pounds.

The combined assembly requires about 35 inch pounds
to rotate...

In some around town driving it is quieter, especially
in a downhill coast... almost no difference in sound level
between loaded and unloaded.

Tomorrow is the real test, to work and back
100 mi each way with some mountainous sections...

wish me luck


Just for clarity ....
This is a solid spacer with a couple of shims used in place
of a crush sleeve. It eliminates the force required to
crush the sleeve in the first place... and allows you to
"work up" to the correct pinion bearing preload incrementally.

 

Sorry, I missed that somehow!!! What you're using is exactly the kind of thing i was talking about. I'll never use a crush sleeve again if I can help it.

Good luck!

 

The solid crush sleeve is a gimmick in my opinion. The only advantage I can see is not having to muscle the pinion nut down. But if you don't put the right shim in there the first time you have to tear everything apart to change it. The factory crush sleeve is what I'll stick w/.

One more thing, if you have used bearings the preload should be about half as much as the spec. The bearings break-in during the first 1000 miles or so and the preload decreases. Your 25 in*lbs pinion preload may be a bit much for used bearings, but I like to have mine a bit tighter than not tight enough for strength reasons.

 

I think that you are correct in that you can certainly
get a crush sleeve "right". I am somewhat of a weakling
though and mustering 125 ft lbs with the tools I have,
lying under the car was all I could do...

As far as taking it apart goes I have a "hollowed out"
set of bearings that I use for initial set up any way....

I figure they and the spacer are the "lazy guys" way
to a decent fit...