Hello TC,

Getting ready to put my 12 bolt back together, just waiting on the new clutches and shims from BGH.:thumbsup:

Question;

What are you guys using to hold your pinion yoke when tightening down the pinion nut? I'm thinking of making a long wrench using about a 5' length of heavywall square tubing, with two peices of heavy flatbar on the end, welded 90 degrees to the bar and drilled to mate with the yoke strap bolts. I'll be using the "no crush sleeve" and old nut method initially, realizing I'll need something pretty robust to hold the yoke for the final "crush" torque with not using a impact gun. I'll be using an industrial 3/4 drive powerbar with extention.
Is it safe to side stress the yoke this way using the strap bolts? It's a Spicer 1350 style yoke.
Is there another, better way?
What have you used?

Cheers, Mark.

A big A$$ pipe wrench should do the trick.

I use a 4 ft pipe wrench about the yoke itself, then a socket and long handle flex handle.

Squeeze the handles together as you can squeeze better then pulling the handles apart from each other.

Do yourself a favor and buy a solid spacer kit. Never been so easy! Never again will i use a crush sleeve! Available here. Of course you will still need the tool to hold the pinion yoke. I bought mine from Rotunda(Ford tool place). I guess if you just had a piece of flat steel you could just drill a couple holes in the end and use that. Doug

http://reiderracing.com/soild_spacers.htm

A pipe wrench? But that would mark up my pretty yoke!:sad: But I do agree with bringing the extention bars together.

Do yourself a favor and buy a solid spacer kit. Never been so easy! Never again will i use a crush sleeve! Available here. Of course you will still need the tool to hold the pinion yoke. I bought mine from Rotunda(Ford tool place). I guess if you just had a piece of flat steel you could just drill a couple holes in the end and use that. Doug



Doug, this is the first I've heard of the solid spacer. Could you explain how it works to bring the bearings to the proper preload?

Cheers, Mark

Ok, I did a little research.
If I'm correct, you are simply adding or subtracting shims on the end of the spacer, to achieve the specified pinion bearing preload.
Using them, you can use the same torque value on the nut each time when setting it up. It makes no difference in the preload, and you don't need to kill yourself trying to acheive the estimated 300 Ft/lbs to crush the new sleeve. Or suffer from overcrushing one.
My question is, would you not have to use a new nut each time? Or would you simply stake and locktight the nut on the final install?
Makes perfect sense, looks like they really are commonly available from quite a few places. Seems they are the choice of the rockcrawler community.
Great..now I get to spend more money!

Cheers, Mark.

A pipe wrench? But that would mark up my pretty yoke! Cheers, MarkTywap a set of soft jaws to the pipe wrench, either copper or alum.

I made a tool to hold the yoke with bolts through the holes. You can make a simple tool from some 1/4 inch thick 2 inch angle iron by just drilling 2 holes in the correct location to line up with the holes in the yoke. I used a pipe wrench for several years before that.

I have one like Big Gear Heads only I had a piece of 3in angle laying around. Mines big enough so I could cut a hole in the middle for the socket to go through but you don't have to it really doesn't take that much of a backup.

Actually the one that I use is something that I designed and had cut on a CNC plasma cutter, but the angle iron works great for most people who won't be doing this very often.

I think I'll just make one using a long length of 2" HW square tube, with two flatbar or angle iron fingers drilled for the yoke, coming off the end (picture a "F").
Perhaps I was overly concerned if it would be ok to sideload the strap bolts and flanges on the yoke. Logic tells me they don't really see that type of load when in use.
My brother used to run a plasma cutter in a robotics shop, pity he still wasn't there still. Should have seen some of the stuff he cut and brought home. Amazing!
Now I'm fixated on this solid sleeve thing.

Cheers, Mark.

Do you need a huge pipe wrench to remove also? Trying to get the pinion out.

yes - had to use one when i removed my pinion nut

Just use an impact gun to remove the nut. No need for a holder if you do.

Cheers, Mark

Ok, I did a little research.
If I'm correct, you are simply adding or subtracting shims on the end of the spacer, to achieve the specified pinion bearing preload.
Using them, you can use the same torque value on the nut each time when setting it up. It makes no difference in the preload, and you don't need to kill yourself trying to acheive the estimated 300 Ft/lbs to crush the new sleeve. Or suffer from overcrushing one.
My question is, would you not have to use a new nut each time? Or would you simply stake and locktight the nut on the final install?
Makes perfect sense, looks like they really are commonly available from quite a few places. Seems they are the choice of the rockcrawler community.
Great..now I get to spend more money!

Cheers, Mark.

Mark, use the old nut to get your specs and then use the new one. I use these on all the diffs i set up. If you guys have ever tried to crush a 12 bolt crush sleeve you would use these. great piece!

Thanks Doug,
I'll be looking for a kit.

Cheers, Mark.

Just use an impact gun to remove the nut. No need for a holder if you do.

Cheers, Mark

That worked. Now there is bearing where the pinion came out of. How does that come out?

Pop the pinion seal out and the bearing will come out.

From the inside?

I hope i am understanding what your asking correctly. When you pop the front pinion seal out the bearing should just come right out the front of the housing, maybe even fallout because all that is holding it in there is the seal. Doug

Sometimes the outer bearing is a press fit. You might have to drive the pinion out of the bearing. If you do this be carefull not to flare the end of the pinion shaft. If you do then you will scrap the pinion because you won't be able to get a nut on it again.

Big gear head, it looks like in his post that he had the pinion out already. He said there is a bearing in the housing where the pinion came out.

Got it. Thanks for the help.

Oops, I missed that.