Hi guys, I took the original rear out of my car and cleaned it, checked it for wear and put it all back together with new seals and gaskets. The internals of the rear looked perfect so nothing was taken apart other than the axles pulled out and the differential. The wheel bearings stayed on the axles, as did the metal oil seal washer, and the differential was not dis***embled at all. I replaced the pinion seal, and the oil seals at the ends of the axle tubes. When I was putting the axles back in the rear, as I tightened the axle flange bolts down, the axles got increasingly harder to turn. Now the rear is back down on the ground with tires on it and the rear would rather stay fixed and allow the pumpkin to flip end over end rather than the pinion just spin. I spoke to a few mechanics and everyone is giving me mixed opinions. Some say it is because I've got all new seals in there and it will loosen up once I drive the car down the road a mile or two. Other people are telling me that it shouldn't be nearly that tight. What do you guys think?
I think its in the pinon. Not sure if there is a crush sleeve that has to be replaced, and you got the yoke on too tight. it all should trun freely. probley not that anyway. Id re pull the axels and re check the bearings.
There is a sleeve in there and I did tighten the yoke down pretty tight. I don't see how it could be the bearings. They spun freely and didn't have any play in them. Should I pull off the yoke and see if that helps? Pulling the axles means I have to replace all of the paper gaskets (which aren't available locally) too because I used silicone on all the gasket surfaces. Should I have used the silicone or am I just being overly cautious?
I did that very thing with the '53 last summer, but I didn't use silicone on the paper gaskets (maybe I'll pay for it later, I don't know), and I didn't experience the trouble you're having. I put all new seals in as well. You can't tell me that a new seal is going to add THAT much "new" resistance! With the rear wheels off the ground, you should be able to turn that yoke by hand pretty easily. I thought I read on here somewhere that 10 ft. lbs. is about the the resistance there should be, if you put a torque wrench on the pinion yoke. Man that's a touch one...the axels went back in ok? You didn't have to force them? Sounds like something might be out of allignment maybe...no idea what, but if it were me, I would do what lanny suggested. Re-pull the axels and then push them back in and see if that makes a difference. something might be just a little out of whack.
I just ordered all new seals today so I'm going to pull it back apart when I get them. Mac's usually only takes about a day to get stuff to me since I'm only a few hours away. Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'll let you know how it turns out.
the yoke or pinion nut torque is critical . i dont know what the proper torque spec is but im sure someone here can tell you .
I was going to try pulling the yoke off to see if that made a difference tonight but I got side tracked. I'm going to do it tomorrow since the parts from Mac's should be here anyway. I have the manual. I'll have to look in it and see what the proper torque spec is.
Ok, so I dug into it yesterday with a friend of mine that's a mechanic and has all the right tools to get the bearings out and races. Turns out my carrier bearings were shot. I figured the chunkiness would go away once I put some oil in it but it didn't so I pulled the whole rear apart to find that my bearings needed to be replaced. I'll be ordering new ones from Mac's tomorrow. Unfortunately noone in my area had them on the shelf or in the warehouses.
The Jalopy Journal
