Yea I re-installed the dust cover. The noise is coming from that area. Also, I can grab it and move it alot. But why would the dust cover make that noise all of a sudden? It hasnt been doing it the past week. Its a metal grinding noise at low speed, and then it changes to a high pitch whine when I pick up speed. Theres really no transition in the noise, its immeadiatly one to the other.

 

Hey , I found on the stock yoke its machined to fit the dust cover on it , but the after market is not, so it has room to move around, I first tried jamming a bit of grease under and around the cover to verify that was the noise, it helped for a little bit but the noise eventually came back, so I just removed it.

sean

 

That sounds high even for a pinion nut.

Like Sean mentioned, you could just remove it to see if the sound quits. If so, either leave it off, or tap the lip with a hammer to tighten up the portion that makes contact with the shaft as it's too loose as is (if indeed the noise is emanating from the dust cover).

 

I dunno, I did the whole pre-load tq with a inch pound tq wrench. Thats just what it came out to to match the pre-load before hand. It does seem high though. However, I just took the dust cover off and re-torqued it to 160 this time.




I just took it off. I dont think it was making the noise though. There are no rub marks or indications on the inside of the dust cover to justify the sounds I was getting. It hasnt came back yet, then again I havent driven it very far. I have a feeling it may indeed be the pinion bearing, especially if that 180 ft-lbs was to much.

 

The proper torque is variable. What you are looking for is in/lbs to rotate. Basically the amount of force reuired to rotate ring gear. This tells you the amount of preload on the pinion bearing. Problem is, this is recorded off of an already (correctly) assembled differential. FYI the starting torque in the procedure 160 ft/lbs.
Procedure for installation of pinion flange is as follows

1.Install flange on the pinion shaft with the reference marks aligned.
2.Install new pinion nut.
3.Hold pinion flange (1) with Flange Wrench C-3281 (2) and tighten pinion nut to 217 Nm (160 ft. lbs.).
4.Measure pinion torque to rotating (1) with an inch pound torque wrench (2). With a torque wrench set at 542 Nm (400 ft. lbs.) tighten nut in 6.8 Nm (5 ft. lbs.) increments until pinion torque to rotating is achieved. Pinion torque to rotating is, the recorded reading plus an additional 0.56 Nm (5 in. lbs.). CAUTION: If maximum tightening torque of 542 Nm (400 ft. lbs.) is reached before torque to rotate is achieved, the collapsible spacer may have been damaged. Never loosen pinion gear nut to decrease pinion gear bearing rotating torque and never exceed specified preload torque. Failure to follow these instruction may result in damage.
5.Install propeller shaft.

 

LOL perfect. I have heard of cases where people roll the axle too far and it starves the pinion bearing for oil. One of my buddies smoked his h/p dana 60 doing just that.

 

Yup, pretty much exactly what I did. That says the max is 400 ft-lbs? Not sure about that, seems way to high. Like I said, originally I had it torqued to 180. Which according to that should be fine. If thats the case, that much torque shouldent have messed anything up. Anyhow, its at 160 now, and ill see if it comes back again.

 

That thought crossed my mind. But I checked the diff fluid level and its good. Also, when I took off the dust cover there was plenty of fluid on the spine that the yoke slides over.

 

The 400-ft lbs is out of the factory service manual. I'm assuming its for a fresh install with a crush sleeve.

The fluid level isnt what killed him. The housing has channels that oil passes through to lubricate the bearing. You change the caster of the actual axle too much and it will starve the bearing. I agree with you though, it doesnt sound like that is what happened. Keep up posted.

 

Where did you guys find a torque wrench that goes down to 5 in/lbs? I'm having a hard time finding one that goes that low