Gear Setup Help

[BlownSierra]

Recently I lost a tooth on the ring gear of my ten bolt. I purchased a set of 4.88's, a master kit and some new wheel bearings and put everything in. I got the pinion preload to spec according to the Yukon manual, got a decent contact pattern and backlash and what I thought was decent carrier preload.

Around 250 miles later, the axle developed a howl which turned out to be the pinion flopping around whenever I wasn't on the drive side. I tightened the pinion nut (I don't believe I ever crushed the crush washer the first time) and overshot the preload torque. I decided to drive it like this and just replace the bearings when I did the oil at 600 miles.

I soon got a howl again but the pinion was still tight. When I opened it up, I found a decent chunk of metal shavings on the magnetic drain plug I put in. I also found that the wear pattern looked similar to my original marking compound pattern, the pinion had no play since I tightened it up a few days prior but the backlash had opened from 8 thou to 18 thou and the carrier took no effort to remove. I replaced the bearings and decreased the backlash to 8.5 thou. I added enough shims to require batting practice with a deadblow to get the carrier in. I could not get a pattern to show up on the drive side with marking compound but the coast side showed a good pattern. As I buttoned it up, I realized that I forgot to put the pinion seal in so I removed the nut and yoke and installed the seal. I then put the put back with a few gobs of red loctite, tightened until I achieved the same resistance to turn the pinion again and marked a line with a sharpie.

Yesterday on the way home the growl returned. The nut backed off between 10 and 0 degrees (assuming I marked it straight). I tightened it back up and the growl is now only at float.


I've clearly made a mess of the whole ordeal but considering what I've done, do you guys think I've wrecked the outer bearing, inner bearing, gears, or all of the above? I just want to make it driveable (no racing, towing) until I can afford an axle that belongs under a truck.

[BlownSierra]

I just remembered that my carrier bearing is out also, could that affect this?

[AllJeep.com]

Any one of those bearings could cause a howl. Thats why gear setups are best left to the professionals. It sounds like you have sent enough metal through that rear end to warrant a another complete overhaul.

[NorCalPR]

A bearing probably wasn't seated all the way and caused the pinion to loosen up, which in turn will damage the pinion bearings, which is probably where the howl is comming from...

[guidolyons]

Originally Posted by BlownSierra

I just remembered that my carrier bearing is out also, could that affect this?

First mistake, is throwing money at a POS 10 bolt.
Second mistake, over tightening the pinion nut, then removing again to replace the oil seal.
Third mistake, Crush sleeves are a one time use item, once you crush them, you have use a new one, or your pinion bearing preload won't ever be right.

What did you use to check pinion bearing preload?

What do you mean your "carrier bearing is out also"? Carrier bearing in the rear end, or carrier bearing on a two-piece driveshaft?

[locost7]

i would disagree that you can not take the pinion nut off and reuse the crush sleeve. as long as the everything is the same, marking the nut and re tighten it to the same mark, the preload will be the same.