MidNightRunner

I just took off the drive-shaft and I put on the torque wretch and the pinion nut has no resistance! I can spin the pinion by the nut with my fingers. What is going on?

Did the guy who installed my gears screw up the crush sleeve, or is this a sign something else?

Can I just use these values that Cliffyk posted in an old thread?

"The pinion nut is to be tightened to whatever torque is required so that it takes 16-29 lb-in of torque (with new bearings/gears/etc) to rotate the pinion gear."

"For reusing the bearings and crush sleeve (8 to 14 lb-in)"

Please help!!!!

cliffyk

It is a sign that the pinion nut was not properly tightened. A lot of mechanics (apparently including the "guy" who installed your gears) feel that all they have to do is mark the nut, and/or count the number of turns, and then replace the nut to the same position--I have even seen this put forth in some online "how-to" articles and threads.

It is not so.

Here is the proper procedure for replace the pinion seal, and re-tightening the nut...