D35 pinion nut torque

87manche · May 29, 2006

OK, so I got this axle used, never thought to check the pinion nut torque.
Just got it installed, drive for about 5 miles and it sounded like a coffee can of marbles in the rear under coast.
Jacked it up, checked the proper operation of the detroit, it's working properly. Then I noticed that the pinionwa s moving as I was testing the detroit. The nut is hand tight.
WHat's the torque supposed to be on this? I will of course be popping the diff cover and checking for gear damage.

87manche · May 30, 2006

OK so I found in my FSM that it's done with bearing drag and not really a torque number. Since the bearing preload has already been set on this axle I simply tightened the pinion nut until it met the crush sleeve where it was previously set. I gave it a little nude to tighten the nut back down and I locktighted the hell out of it.
Hopefully it will last a little while. I'm ordering a new pinion bearing, and it looks like a full teardown may be in the near future for my rear end.
Thankfully the R&P was not damaged.

Matthew Currie · May 30, 2006

87manche said:
OK so I found in my FSM that it's done with bearing drag and not really a torque number. Since the bearing preload has already been set on this axle I simply tightened the pinion nut until it met the crush sleeve where it was previously set. I gave it a little nude to tighten the nut back down and I locktighted the hell out of it.
Hopefully it will last a little while. I'm ordering a new pinion bearing, and it looks like a full teardown may be in the near future for my rear end.
Thankfully the R&P was not damaged.

Short of getting a new crush sleeve, what you did was about the only option. I've done this in the past with good results when replacing pinion seals. I just assume that the original preload will have loosened up a little with age, and add a little extra tweak to the crush sleeve. Of course in your case there's a chance the bearing itself was damaged from running loose, but if it wasn't you might get lucky.

87manche · May 30, 2006

Matthew Currie said:
Short of getting a new crush sleeve, what you did was about the only option. I've done this in the past with good results when replacing pinion seals. I just assume that the original preload will have loosened up a little with age, and add a little extra tweak to the crush sleeve. Of course in your case there's a chance the bearing itself was damaged from running loose, but if it wasn't you might get lucky.

That's what my friend that helped me setup the detroit told me. We never thought to check the pinion preload, we just measured backlash, popped the carrier and then set it back with the detroit.
His advice was what I did, and he said the same thing, it may work for the life of the truck, it may go bad next week. Only time will tell. For what it's worth I didn't run it long loose, about 1/2 mile, and I tried to keep it tight with engine torque.
We'll see.
Thanks for confirming what we thought.

D35 pinion nut torque

87manche

NAXJA Forum User

87manche

NAXJA Forum User

Matthew Currie

NAXJA Member #760

87manche

NAXJA Forum User

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