Pinion gear torque specs?

I'm in the process of taking out my pinion gear and the book says measure in inch pounds the amount of torque it takes to spin the yoke with axles and carrier intact. Now this all seemed well and fine until i went to try it myself lol the pinion gear turns so easy that it doesn't register on the torque wrench. Any suggestions?
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I assume you are using a beam torque wrench?

It doesn't really matter on dissasembly, only on reassembly. Yukon's specs are 10-12 inch pounds on a new gear set, and 6-8 on a used. I find it a great reference. Yukon Manual

edit: if you are reusing the gear set, measure the backlash before dissasembly and make sure you get it at that measurement when you reinstall it, or it'll run noisy.

It's a used gearset therefore before i put it back in I want to put it to the required backlash specs stated in the book.

Right.

The pinion preload won't affect the backlash, it's just to preload the pinion bearings.

Read up on that Yukon manual. I did my first two axles using it.

You need to measure preload on the bearings before you take things to bits, then you torque the pinion to the minimum setting (usually ~180-200 pound-feet) and check preload. Continue to torque in small increments until your bearing preload is within the rage given in the manual (I'm working on my axle pages still - but you can get torque figures on my site. Link in sig.)

Note that there are two different preload ranges - for new bearings, and for used bearing (or, for "overhaul" and "service," if you prefer.)

If you enjoy munching pinion bearings, preload ain't important. If you prefer to not have that "growling whine" from a failed pinion bearing, you will want to check.

If you're going to service your axle even once - get an inch-pound torque wrench, either beam style or dial style. While "micrometer" or "click" type torque wrenches are quite useful, they're useless for measuring preload on rotating assemblies. A beam style torque wrench is relatively inexpensive (no moving parts,) but a dial style is what you want if you're doing this a lot (and they get quite spendy.) I'd suggest a beam style for the casual user...

Torque wrench types:

Beam Type:


"Click" type (also called "micrometer" type or "microtork"):


And the "dial" type: