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Tech Question
Mike Eaton, Minot, Nd, 71 Dodge Charger 318
I Had My Rearend Rebuilt Recently
(489 Casting With richmond 4.10 Gears, Has 10 Spline Yolk And The Big U-joint)
And I have Crosthreaded One Of The Holes That Secures The Strap To The Pinion Yolk
and Canot Get A Bolt In Straight. I Would Like To Know If I Can
just Buy A New Pinion Yolk, Torque It To 240 Ft/lb And Call It Good,
just Replace Crush Sleve With A Solid Non-crush Sleve With New
yolk And Torque To 240 Ft/lbs, Or Do I Have To Buy A New "crush" Sleve
and Have The Patern On The Teeth Set Up Again? Is A Solid Non Crush Sleve
recomended On Street Cars? I Am Not Too Familiar With Working On Rear Ends.
thanks, Any Help Is Apreciated Greatly
Mike, first of all, I wouldn't be so quick to pull the yoke off at all. I think there's enough meat there to simply drill it out an Heli-coil it. It's standard 1/4"-28 SAE (fine) thread.
Failing that, here's the basic procedure: You must measure the turning torque before you pull the yoke. To get anything repeatable, the drums must be removed - no big deal. Then you must turn the yoke with a low-range inch-pounds torque wrench on the pinion nut and record the reading. The actual number isn't important as long as you are confident that it was set correctly by the builder. The reason is that now you are reading the turning torque with the diff and axles in place, which creates quite a bit of 'drag'.
Now install the new yoke and torque the nut to 170 ft./lbs. Then re-measure the turning torque. If it's back to the number your recorded, you're done. If not, keep tightening the nut in 20 ft./lb. increments until you reach the recorded number, but not tighter than 240 ft./lbs.
If you never reach the target number, simply remove the yoke again, pop out the pinion seal and front bearing, then slide out the collapsible spacer (sleeve). Install a new spacer, the original bearing (cone and roller assembly), and a new seal, which should be the same brand as the one you removed (a different seal would have a different amount of drag, throwing off your turning-torque readings). Then repeat the procedure in the paragraph above.
Solid spacers are 100% streetable, and greatly simplify this procedure - it then becomes just a nuts-'n'-bolts deal, no measuring required - same as a #741 or 742 pig. You could even do this now, but you'd need to mess with the shims to recapture that original turning torque, which would be a helluva hassle with the pig still in the car.
Rick
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