Wayne--
The crush sleeve is a piece of tubing that has a
"wrinkle" in it. It is supposed to crush (get
shorter) when you tighten the pinion nut (with a LOT
of torque). Usually used ones are too short to
reuse, so you need a new one. The crush sleeve fits
between the two pinion bearings, and controls the
preload on the bearings. If the sleeve is too long,
the bearings will be loose, and if it's too short,
the bearings will be too tight (with the pinion nut
torqued to spec, which is usually over 150 ft-lbs).
The actual torque does vary from one individual
rearend to another, because the nut gets tightened
until the pinion bearing preload is within specs.
The torque could be from 150 ft lbs, to possibly
250-300 ft lbs.
When you install the new sleeve, it may take a
couple hundred foot pounds of torque to crush the
sleeve, so you need a big wrench, and a "handle" to
hold the pinion yoke still. You can make this
handle with a piece of 2" x 1/4" steel strap, about
3 or 4 feet long, drill holes for two bolts to go in
the ubolt holes on the yoke, and cut a round area
out so the socket on the nut will clear the handle.
Then have at it.
You have to be very careful tightening it! when you
take up the slack in the bearings by crushing the
sleeve, you need to stop and see how much torque it
takes to turn the pinion (this is the pinion bearing
preload, usually measured in INCH pounds, see the
manual). If you crush the sleeve too far, and it
then takes too much torque to turn the pinion
because you have too much preload, you need to take
it all apart and install another NEW crush sleeve!
so take it slow...
Hopefully I've raised a few more questions for you
:)
Jim F
59s in AZ
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