How tight should pinion bearing be?
Be careful a quarter turn past optimum is way too tight. You only want 12-20 in. lbs of torque on the free spinning pinion. If you go too tight, the only thing to do is take it apart and crush a new sleeve.
Can you tighten pinion bearing preload?
Tighten the pinion nut to approximately 250 foot pounds. Use an inch-pound torque wrench to check the preload. If the preload is too loose then remove the shims so that the bearings will be tighter against the races and increase the preload.
How do you fix a loose pinion bearing preload?
Use an inch-pound torque wrench to check the preload. If the preload is too loose then remove shims so that the bearings will be tighter against the races and increase the preload. If the preload is too tight then remove the pinion gear and add shims so that the bearings will not be as tight against the races.
What does a loose pinion bearing sound like?
A “whirring” noise while decelerating at any or all speeds is most likely caused by bad pinion bearings or loose pinion bearing preload. This condition is typically always diagnosed as a bad ring and Pinion gear. Regular “clunking” or loud “clicking” every few feet may indicate a broken ring or pinion gear tooth.
Can you over tighten pinion nut?
If you overtighten the pinion nut, you need to remove the pinion and replace the crush sleeve.
What can happen if the pinion bearing preload was set incorrectly?
The pinion gear rotates at driveshaft speed and can mimic a driveshaft speed-related vibration. Improper pinion bearing preload can cause what appears to be a pinion seal leak, but the seal is fine, the pinion gear is moving vertically, horizontally, or diagonally as is rotates.
What happens if you over tighten pinion nut?
The more you tighten the pinion nut the more the crush sleeve crushes and the more pinion load you will have. You need to get creative to find a tool to keep the yoke from turning. Then again if you are reusing old crush sleeve, with known good prior setup, and only torquing to 200 ft-lbs.
What happens if pinion preload was set incorrectly?
What does a bad pinion bearing look like?
Whirring Noise: One of the pronounced bad pinion-bearing symptoms is its whirring noise during acceleration or deceleration at various speeds. Worn out pinion bearings create more whirring noise rather than rumbling because it rotates several times faster than the carrier assembly of the vehicle.
What happens when a pinion bearing goes bad?
Generally, worn out pinion bearings can create whirring noises at various speeds, be it may during deceleration and/or acceleration. If the pinion bearings are the problem, they create more of a whirring noise than a rumble because it turns several times faster than the carrier assembly.
What size is the pinion nut on GM 10 Bolt?
8.5″
PYN10 – 10-Bolt 8.5″; Pinion Nut (30 Spline Pinion)
What does pre load mean on a pinion nut?
Pinion pre-load is the force (pressure) between the pinion bearings (blue) and the pinion bearing’s race (yellow). As the pinion nut is tightened it forces the yoke against a “crush sleeve” (red) that is designed to “control” collapse under force.
What happens if you pre load a differential pinion?
A Pinion with too much pre-load will overheat and destroy the pinion bearings requiring a complete differential teardown and rebuild. My objective was not to reset the Pinion pre-load, but to increase the Pinion pre-load incrementally until Pinion movement was eliminated.
What happens when you back off a pinion nut?
Backing off the Pinion nut once the sleeve has been compressed does not result in less pinion pre-load, it results in NO Pinion pre-load. Of the two conditions, not having enough Pinion pre-load is far preferable. A Pinion with too much pre-load will overheat and destroy the pinion bearings requiring a complete differential teardown and rebuild.
What causes a differential pinion to move when torque is applied?
Pinion pre-load is lost gradually over the life of the differential as the bearings and or race wears with use. This wear can cause enough pre-load to be lost that the pinion will actually move when torque is applied or removed to the pinion via the driveshaft under engine acceleration or deceleration.