Forgot to mark the pinion and nut before removal, any ideas on how to torque it down? I know they are all different. My Dad told me "back in the day" they would just torque the **** out of it". Judging by the way my air gun took it off, It will need a quite a bit to torque down. 15 inch-pounds as advertised doesn't seem right. Any suggestions?

The diff is a "C" code 12 bolt in a 1968 442.

Thanks!

 

You have to be careful otherwise you will bind up the pinion bearings.

 

That is the amount of drag you are supposed to have when the nut is torqued down when spinning the pinion.

 

I used my impact on "low" until the nut woundn't turn anymore. Hope that works. Car has 66k miles

 

You can damage the bearings if you over torque the nut.

 

And as already said, after the nut is on you have to verify the rotational torque is within spec.

 

The pre-load on the pinion bearings can only be checked with the carrier,pumpkin,diff or whatever you choose to call it. Out of the housing, in other words you would have to pull the axles and inspection cover and diff carrier to properly set the pre-load to spec after a pinion seal replacment (which is presumably what took place). The best way to check for the 15 inch lbs. (if that is the spec) is to use a dial or beam style torque wrench. If you just run the nut down with an impact gun, you more than likely put too much preload on the pinion bearings which will cause them to overheat and fail. If you are planning on putting a lot of miles on the car it would probably be best (and less expensive) to tear it down and do it right the first time.

 

Yah this thread is getting sloppy...

If your just going to use the gun and hope for the best then expect the worst....

The NUTS torque comes from the crushing of the pinion crush sleeve. The crushing of the sleeves metal could take 100 -250 ft lbs. Lock tight should be used and we even stake the nut with a pointed steel punch. Jim

The rotational torque is done with only the pinion in place and will be in INCH pounds of rotating torque with a bar type torque wrench. If you know what A good bearing drag feels like you will be ok...BUT if you do not have a clue... Better get some one to help. Jim

 

That is a pretty finicky process. Having not marked the nut for exact reinstallation, you must take it to an experienced professional to get it done right.

One can't even check the 15 lb-in [somewhere I heard that torque should be specified force-distance in that order- lb-ft for example] of pinion torque with the carrier and its bearings adding to the load.