I have a problem and a question about pinion yoke seal

[JBerryhill]

To make a long story short, I got some wire wrapped around my rear pinion yoke and it damaged my seal, I removed the yoke and replaced the seal....... after I did this someone told me I should have marked the yoke before removing it, now what do I do....is there a torque spec on the nut or do I just tighten it up and hope it doesn't crush the sleeve more or what? Thanks for any help.

[joesgarage71]

Just hope you have it tight enough. I wouldn't worry about getting it too tight, unless you where jumpin' up and down on a 4 ft pipe at the end of the breaker bar.

[VileZambonie]

You need to witness mark the pinion nut to the yoke and to the pinion shaft before removing it. The only way to properly retighten the nut is to remove the axles and the differential carrier. Then you can measure pinion turning torque to know if the bearings are properly preloaded. Otherwise at this point you're pretty much guessing.

[Dr_Snooz]

I'll throw this out there for posterity. The crush sleeve is one tough mother and it doesn't crush without a LOT of effort. On my 14-bolt semi-floater, 700 ft-lbs wasn't enough to do it. Most likely, you can put the nut back on, tighten it up to some reasonable torque and not worry about it. Read more here: http://forum.73-87chevytrucks.com/smforum/index.php?topic=31306.new#new.