Pinion Bearing, am I paranoid?

Hey Everyone,

Last weekend my front diff started to leak from the pinion seal. Well I go to check it out and noticed I have some play in the yoke, like the pinion bearing went to crap on me. Last night I pulled it down and the bearing looked good, the fluid was clean as well. I couldn't find anything wrong so I just removed some of the pre-load shims one at a time until all was snug again. I test drove it, drove it four miles down the road and back, got up to 60 for about a mile. When I got back in the driveway the front pinion area was slightly warm. Should it have gotten warm on a short run like that or am I freaking out that I got it to tight lol. All seems well otherwise, leak is fixed no noise etc. Thanks in advance.

Clark

How warm are we talking? "Warm" is a relative term. Could you hold your hand there without it being painful? I;d say, even on a mile run, which seems like you went a little further than 1 mile..if it's barely warm to the touch, you should be ok.

Have you set up gears before? Everyone gear set I have seen has a little bit of play in it. It is called backlash I believe. They set the backlash with a dial indacator not by hand. You should probably put those shims back in there before you ruin something! Also differentials do get warm, look under your jeep after you drive it on wet roads. The differential cover will be dry.

the shims you pulled set bearing preload and should not be removed unless you plan to check the preload with the carier removed. what prob happened is that the nut backed off slightly and your yoke became loose on the splines. i beleive teh torqe is around 200 ftlbs on that nut (very tight more than you can do with your standard rachet). If the bearing wore enough to loosen the nut it is time for replacement. i would suggest at minimum to reinstall the shims and torque to spec and check the difference between perfect and certian failure is less than a quarter turn with the wrong shims!
good luck
Brandon

Thanks for the replies, will look into it some more this weekend.