Wobbly rear pinion? (1 Viewer)

[Seth_O]

I noticed my rear pinion leaking when I dropped my rear d-shaft to do some other work.

I figured I needed a new pinion seal, this one was on the truck when I bought it and was an unknown age. I ordered a new toyota seal and finally got into it today.

This is what I found:

The pinion cover slid right off when I removed the staked nut. That didnt seem right.

The existing seal looks very different than the new toyota seal I bought. New toyota looks as expected.

Next I noticed the pinion looked weirdly off-center.

Then I reached up and grabbed the pinion and found it EASILY moved around - video below.



That doesnt seem right to me, but looking for additional opinions. Do I need to open the whole thing up?

 

[3_puppies]

for some reason, I'm thinking when the flange is on and the nut tightened it draws the pinion back into the bearing.
when you have movement with the flange installed and tightened, that is an issue.

 

[ChaserFJ60]

I noticed my rear pinion leaking when I dropped my rear d-shaft to do some other work.

I figured I needed a new pinion seal, this one was on the truck when I bought it and was an unknown age. I ordered a new toyota seal and finally got into it today.

This is what I found:

The pinion cover slid right off when I removed the staked nut. That didnt seem right.

The existing seal looks very different than the new toyota seal I bought. New toyota looks as expected.

View attachment 2752853

Next I noticed the pinion looked weirdly off-center.

View attachment 2752859

Then I reached up and grabbed the pinion and found it EASILY moved around - video below.



That doesnt seem right to me, but looking for additional opinions. Do I need to open the whole thing up?

Its wobbeling because you removed the only nut keeping it in contact with the ring gear. Ive made the same assumption and asked the same question about this same exact thing! Re torque yer nuts and call it good!

 

[cps432]

When you get it torqued back down with the flange installed, grab the flange and see if there is any movement laterally and forward and aft. It should be solid as a rock. If you’ve got any play, well that’s why your seal went bad. Maybe... really old seals do tend to get brittle even when they’re lubricated. But if you have any play I would address that ASAP. Maybe swap the front diff to the rear if you don’t use 4x4 often.

 

[Spike Strip]

Its wobbeling because you removed the only nut keeping it in contact with the ring gear. Ive made the same assumption and asked the same question about this same exact thing! Re torque yer nuts and call it good!

DON'T retorque that pinion nut to factory setting. You'll over-squish the crush washer and it'll be too tight and you'll have to take apart and get a new crush washer. Axe me how I know!

If you can figure out with the number of appox threads on the pinion nut exposed before removal, tighten down using that as a guide checking preload multiple times.

Pinion Preload - Diff Troubles. - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/pinion-preload-diff-troubles.236354/

 

[Spike Strip]

Also, may just be the angle of your pic, but I can't quite tell if that's the correct pinion seal (new one). Old one is not correct enough

Toyota seal should have a kind of 'lip' on it that sticks out from the front surface of the seal 90311-38047 is the newest one.

 

[Seth_O]

Also, may just be the angle of your pic, but I can't quite tell if that's the correct pinion seal (new one). Old one is not correct enough

Toyota seal should have a kind of 'lip' on it that sticks out from the front surface of the seal 90311-38047 is the newest one.

View attachment 2753755

I do, indeed have the correct one. Tks for asking the question!

 

[Seth_O]

DON'T retorque that pinion nut to factory setting. You'll over-squish the crush washer and it'll be too tight and you'll have to take apart and get a new crush washer. Axe me how I know!

If you can figure out with the number of appox threads on the pinion nut exposed before removal, tighten down using that as a guide checking preload multiple times.

Pinion Preload - Diff Troubles. - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/pinion-preload-diff-troubles.236354/

Going to have to check on this one. I think the reason it's so loose is it was never tightened to factory spec in the first place. I'll have to carefully re-tighten while checking the torque spec frequently.

 

[cps432]

Going to have to check on this one. I think the reason it's so loose is it was never tightened to factory spec in the first place. I'll have to carefully re-tighten while checking the torque spec frequently.

It wouldn’t be terribly difficult to get some measurements off the gears while it’s in the truck just to verify things are aligned and not grinding.