Rear Pinion seal (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Joined
Mar 5, 2008
Threads
74
Messages
482
Location
Livonia Michigan
Im gonna do this seal today because it seems to be leaking, Can i do it just like ive done with other toyotas, Just replace the seal put the pinion nut back on tighten it down hand tight, get the gun on it and give it 3 short burts and call it a day?
 
Personally I would not do that. You will lose your pinion bearing pre load. Unless you have a solid spacer in there.
 
so your saying to replace a 8$ seal i have to take the whole pig out? Have u ever crushed a sleeve before, ive set up a couple(literally 2 LOL) and its really really hard even once u start to crush it. So My "theroy" here is a impact gun isnt really gonna crush that sleeve anymore is just gonna get it as close to as possible what it was before, all ill do is check what it feels like before and try to match it after. I did this on my 83 pickup and 91 4runner both been running amazing have put maybe 12k on them. Any shop u take it to also is gonna do the same thing!

anymore input guys !!!!!!!!
 
Last edited:
Hey you asked for input. I was just giving mine. I wouldn't worry about it though. Just pull the seal out and replace it. Then buzz the nut back down and give it a couple turns by hand to make sure the pre load feels the same. Also try to reassemble the nut where it was staked before.
 
Last edited:
I wasnt trying to sound mad/pissed/mean sorry if it came off that way!
 
No worrys, I'm just anal. I don't think there will be a problem if you just index the nut to where it was staked.
 
Yea Im gonna do that, and I have a Beam style torque wrench that goes up to 180 ft/lbs i think , Im gonna use that also spin it and get a reading.
 
Make sure to lock tight it since you will be using the same staking point when you tighten the nut back up. I think you can also pull your e-brake and tighten the nut by hand.
 
I had some of the same questions and from asking around and reading (and watching some youtube videos) I kept seeing the same advice. If you aren't going to do it the correct way checking preload then the next best was to count the number of threads on the pinion shaft or number of full turns of the nut on/off and put alignment marks on everything so that you can put it back exactly where it was before. Some people say tighten the nut a tad beyond where it was, but most say put it back exactly where it was, but everything I've read says never use a impact gun to put the nut back on. There's one member of this forum who rebuilds diffs for a living; he said be very careful not to over-tighten the pinion nut or you will toast your used bearing really fast. I'm not the expert and haven't done it yet myself.
 
Measure the overall preload before and after you replace the seal and then make sure that the preload insn't higher after and that there is no noticable bearing play. If the bearing goes out, you aren't much worse off than if you took it out and replaced the crush sleeve.
 
Any shop u take it to also is gonna do the same thing!

anymore input guys !!!!!!!!

Yeah, you're probably right about that. But that's also a good reason to find another shop...:p

I owned a 76 FJ55 that eventually got a short block Chevy. After that, started having rear pinion issues, because I was young and lead-footed. Always took it back to the same guy to deal with it, because I didn't have the tools or garage space at the time to DIY. His quote was way cheaper than anyone else's. The method you described is probably why.

About every 10,000 miles, needed a new seal. I can't recall if the bearing was ever done. But if I'd known any better at the time, I probably would have been willing to pay the extra freight to do it right. If your truck is never going to be too far from home or road service, then no problem doing it that way. If not, then it's worth considering doing it per the FSM.
YMMV
 
You should realize that the new seal alone will effect any preload comparison between it and a worn out seal.

Look closely at the Passenger side upper control arm. If it has diff lube on it I would not touch the diff as is and pull it for a full rebuild.

I've had two occations where there was oil on that arm and when I removed the pinion nut the pinion fell inside the housing. :whoops:
 
I've had two occations where there was oil on that arm and when I removed the pinion nut the pinion fell inside the housing. :whoops:

secret ( kind of ) to avoid that it's allow the rear 3rd ( or the 3rd you will work on ) old your cruiser .. then the pinion and ring will be tight enough to hold it in place ..
 
FJ60ed: don't mean to hijack your thread, just trying to understand more about what can go wrong.

Tapage: I didn't understand your point, what makes the pinion and ring tight enough (to not fall in?)??

landtank: I don't understand how the pinion could fall inside??
 
The pinion fell inside because the outer bearing race had worn to a point where it was no longer a press fit on the pinion itself and actually became loose.

It was the loose bearing that was actually the culprit for the leak because as it shook around it allowed the gear lube to move past the seal and spray up onto the control arm.
 
The pinion fell inside because the outer bearing race had worn to a point where it was no longer a press fit on the pinion itself and actually became loose.

It was the loose bearing that was actually the culprit for the leak because as it shook around it allowed the gear lube to move past the seal and spray up onto the control arm.

That makes total sense, based on my previous FJ55 experience.
:idea:
 
So does it make sense that if before you remove the pinion nut you find play (?how much) in the flange maybe you shouldn't mess with the nut and seal unless you plan on pulling the 3rd member??
 
Well the comment about a loose pinion bearing raises a question for me because I just had my 5.29s set up and my installer pointed out that the inner pinion bearing took no effort to install or remove for that matter. He said it did not require a press at all. This was a koyo bearing on a nitro rear pinion and I asked Carl at JTs about it and he said that the pinion is designed to be a snug fit but not a press fit. Anyone got any thoughts / similar input. Installer said on the front he had to put the pinion in the freezer and heat the bearing and barely got it on there, but the rear just dropped right on with no effort at all.

What y'all think about that? Should I be worried about that rear pinion? Or with all new bits set up right should I be fine?

Thanks and sorry for the hijack...
 
Well the comment about a loose pinion bearing raises a question for me because I just had my 5.29s set up and my installer pointed out that the inner pinion bearing took no effort to install or remove for that matter. He said it did not require a press at all. This was a koyo bearing on a nitro rear pinion and I asked Carl at JTs about it and he said that the pinion is designed to be a snug fit but not a press fit. Anyone got any thoughts / similar input. Installer said on the front he had to put the pinion in the freezer and heat the bearing and barely got it on there, but the rear just dropped right on with no effort at all.

What y'all think about that? Should I be worried about that rear pinion? Or with all new bits set up right should I be fine?

Thanks and sorry for the hijack...

Thats pretty sketchy, the bearing should be a press fit/close tolerance on the pinion shaft. I would be scared that the bearing spinning on the pinion and causing damage. I would have thrown some calipers or mics and measured the OD of the pinion shaft and the ID of the bearing and see what the specs are for these. One of them might be out of spec. Did you mechanic apply loctite 609 or similar bearing retaining compound to the inner bearing?

Also doesn't your mechanic have a press and tools? I used to do the oven method for bearing and misc parts on gas turbine engines works fine.
 
Last edited:
I've setup quite a few gears sets including 5.29s from Carl and when using new install kits the bearings were all pressed on. None of them would go on by hand let alone slide on.

And I doubt you will feel any play in the pinion as you can't apply any were near the load needed by hand. On the two rears I had a problem with once the diff was torn down you could see the wear on the bearing and feel the play but it was minimal.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom