The only real problem I had doing mine was tightening the pinion bolt. I had to finally put about 300 plus pounds to get the crush sleeve to crush enough to give me the proper inch pounds needed on the pinion. I broke 3 Crafsman ½ ratchets doing it.. with a long pipe attached at the end of them.
Locktite isn’t really feasible on the pinion nut because you have to tighten then check the resistance and tighten again.. bla bla bla .
and not all crush sleeves are created equal some take more pressure than others.

 

Thanks Rought.

My new 250 ft lb tq wrench is a good 3 ft long so I'm hopeful.

I never did get a chance to take the diff out today. My adjuster locks are off, preload adjusters are backed off and bearing cap bolts are backed out. Tomorrow I have to pull the sensor from the top of the housing and then out comes the diff.

I'll be honest, this is really easy work. But overall, once the diff is out, then I can see what all damage I have to the pinion and bearings.

 

Weed,

You ought to send that vid to the manager of the dealership in Albany.
Hope all goes well for the rebuild-----glad your pulling the diff and benching it----makes the setup SO much easier and cleaner.

I've had pretty good luck with the dealer near me that I've had to use when the pilot bearing took my clutch assembly out, nearly took the rear hub of the crank out. Had the guy go though the tranny and reseal it while it was out, and had to replace the input shaft, $700 ouch at the dealership, too.
That and a new Southbend clutch----they're here in town, and everything was good
That was nearly a 100k ago, and all is still well---the guy did a good job.

Good Luck

 

Anyone ever used these crush sleeve eliminator kits?

 

I wouldn't recommend those for the street. While they would eliminate the issue of the sleeve losing its pre-load when a shock happens like yours experienced, thats really for trail situations. I think you will have a short lived bearings and pinion gear with that kit on the street. There's literally zero room for error on the install and then when the bearings break in and loosen up, you should tear it back down and re-shim to reduce slack

 

Trust me, everything is taken out. Well, everything but the pinion gear. I've got some pics I'm going to post later. I'm 100% the pinion bearings / races are shot. Won't know if one or both until tomorrow. Been raining and to cold. Not a good combo. Either way, looks like I can get the bearing sets pretty cheap.

 

Pinion is out and........... the bearings are fine. Races are fine too. Seems the pinion nut simply was backing out causing the excess play.

Ordering new front pinion bearing and race (cup) today being I had to pound out the pinion.

 

Wouldn’t be a bad idea to get two crush sleeves in case you over tighten and have to do it again.,

 

One step ahead of you

There are $10 each from the dealer. Only place I could find them in town

 

I bought the crush sleeve eliminator kit Weed when I was going to do mine.
The quality is really bad.
It looked like some soft metal piping they had laying around and threw in the kit
The diameter of the tubing was also so big, that when fitted over the pinion shaft it waggled from side to side and slid over the shoulder of the pinion shaft
The ends of the tubing we're also not "true" and had an angle to them on both ends.
A neighbour of mine turned some 4/5 differing lengths of high quality steel tubing, to allow me to use no shims or just the one to get the correct length/preload.
The Principle of using these eliminators is sound, but the kit I bought was rubbish!
I'm not the first on the boards to say that either.
Good news on no damage to the rear.
Al