Looking for advice on where to go with an axle that seems to have too little pinion preload. (2 Viewers)

[Zenwren]

Hopefully this is the appropriate place to ask this, but I currently have a GM 14 bolt (FF, DRW) sitting on my garage floor. I was going to replace the leaky pinion seal before putting it into my project. I know you're supposed to check preload with the carrier removed, but just for reference I checked it with the carrier installed (no oil or axles) and got a steady 4in/lbs of preload. That seemed a little low, and now when I remove the yoke I can see that someone replaced the pinion seal at one time already and judging from the gobs of RTV under the flange and the fact that it wasn't fully seated tells me they may not have known what they were doing and possibly didn't properly tighten the pinion nut when they reassembled, leading to the low preload. What would you do in this situation? It's probably just going to be a temporary axle so I don't expect to put a ton of miles on it and really don't want to dig into preemptively replacing pinion bearings. Would you just put it back together as it was using the "count the turns/marks" method? Maybe give it a little extra torque to bring it closer to spec? Pull the carrier and do it right?

 

[aztoyman]

If you were the first one, you would probably be fine putting it back in the same position and getting away with the "easy" reseal.

Looks like you're not, so it might already have damage or some jacked up wear pattern.

Might be on its way out now?? If you want to use it someday I'd personally play it safe. It would be different if it was a quick way to get off the trail. Just my personal opinion.

Let us know what you do. Especially if it works out ok.