Leaking Front Pinion

Mine just started leaking recently too. Not enough to form drops, but the bottom of the diff is wet from fluid and I got a shiny spot on the side of my gas tank skid. Gonna replace the pinion seals and maybe install a set of adams 1310 front and rear solid ds while I'm at it.
 
Okay... I was able to get the MOPAR seal locally and picked up a couple recommended tools. Between the advice from y'all here and a couple of YouTube videos, I got it knocked out tonight! I am concerned that I didn't get the pinion nut to 160lbs, though... My dad borrowed my jack and stands, so I was working on the Jeep sitting on the ground. Not enough leverage and the diff was wanting to spin the wheels, so I hope it's tight enough. I took it for a pretty decent test drive at street and highway speeds in 2wd and 4wd and didn't experience any driveline vibrations, so I'm taking that as a positive. So far, no leaks.

I'm taking an unscheduled trip up to Sacramento tomorrow, so that should give it a good test.

Thanks to everyone who participated in this thread!
 
So are you guys not replacing the crush sleeve when doing this? The crush sleeve is a one time use item and should be replaced any time the pinion nut is loosened. It sets your preload on the pinion bearings, and chances are if you reuse the old one and crank to 160 ft/lb your pinion bearings will be set up too tight.

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holliewood61 said:
So are you guys not replacing the crush sleeve when doing this? The crush sleeve is a one time use item and should be replaced any time the pinion nut is loosened. It sets your preload on the pinion bearings, and chances are if you reuse the old one and crank to 160 ft/lb your pinion bearings will be set up too tight.

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From what research I did before attempting this repair, the current D44 and possibly D30 uses shims for preload. No crush sleeve.
 
holliewood61 said:
So are you guys not replacing the crush sleeve when doing this? The crush sleeve is a one time use item and should be replaced any time the pinion nut is loosened. It sets your preload on the pinion bearings, and chances are if you reuse the old one and crank to 160 ft/lb your pinion bearings will be set up too tight.

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Click to expand...

It's not necessary to change the crush sleeve every time the pinion nut is removed.


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Granite_head said:
It's not necessary to change the crush sleeve every time the pinion nut is removed.


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Each to their own. I personally wouldn't re-use a crush sleeve once the load has been taken off. A 3 dollar sleeve is a lot cheaper than the pinion bearings and cups one would have to replace should the bearings get setup too tight. An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure.

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From auto school, I was taught to always replace the crush sleeve, but I've also experienced over the years that if you measure the turning resistance ahead of time, when you replace the seal, you can get by with reusing the sleeve by tightening the pinion nut so that you have an inch pound or two more of turning resistance than your starting reading. This is assuming that you're starting reading isn't on the high side of allowable manufacturer specs already.
 
Granite_head said:
Not sure where you did your research but there is definitely a crush sleeve in there.


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Lol. I started with this thread and no one mentioned anything but the seal and pinion nut. Neither did any of the videos I watched. There were some other forum discussions I read through where the people brought it up, but the majority of the consensus was that the D44 did not use them.
 
I believe all wranglers use crush sleeves. I know the cj's up to 86 used shims and when they went to driver side drop front 30's in 87 is when we started seeing crush sleeves. There may be some early yj's out there with shims, but ive never seen one.

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Can't still check and just see if it's still in spec range by pulling the driveline and checking resistance at the pinion nut? That's what I did when I changed out my yoke measured resistance changed it tourqed it down and remeasured the resistance and set it a touch higher


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WJCO said:
From auto school, I was taught to always replace the crush sleeve, but I've also experienced over the years that if you measure the turning resistance ahead of time, when you replace the seal, you can get by with reusing the sleeve by tightening the pinion nut so that you have an inch pound or two more of turning resistance than your starting reading. This is assuming that you're starting reading isn't on the high side of allowable manufacturer specs already.
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This works best if you actually remove the axle shafts and carrier so you can get accurate before and after readings of required torque to spin the pinion by itself. But if you're doing this much work, tapping the pinion out and replacing the crush sleeve isn't much beyond that. I'm skeptical that taking torque readings with the carrier and shafts in will be all that accurate. Given the amount of work, I like your suggestion of just smearing some RTV on the outside and calling it a day. Unless you're dripping fluid at a pretty high rate, a little weeping isn't going to harm anything other than OCD tendencies and maybe a pristine driveway. Besides, You can always top up the diff fluid from time to time.


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holliewood61 said:
Each to their own. I personally wouldn't re-use a crush sleeve once the load has been taken off. A 3 dollar sleeve is a lot cheaper than the pinion bearings and cups one would have to replace should the bearings get setup too tight. An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure.

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The bearings are maybe 50 bucks. It's all the work it takes to replace them that can get expensive timewise or moneywise.



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Okay, so all this info is what I was hoping for last week before I dove in. 😂

So, again I'll ask, how do I know if there's a problem? I'm already driving up the state, so I can't pull over and yank the driveline. If something isn't right am I going to hear or feel anything? You guys have me nervous now.
 
BaddestCross said:
Okay, so all this info is what I was hoping for last week before I dove in. 😂

So, again I'll ask, how do I know if there's a problem? I'm already driving up the state, so I can't pull over and yank the driveline. If something isn't right am I going to hear or feel anything? You guys have me nervous now.
Click to expand...
Eventually it would start growling if too tight, the housing near the pinion would also be hotter than normal after driving if too tight. If its too loose there would be some play in the pinion and possibly some noise

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BaddestCross said:
Okay, so all this info is what I was hoping for last week before I dove in. [emoji23]

So, again I'll ask, how do I know if there's a problem? I'm already driving up the state, so I can't pull over and yank the driveline. If something isn't right am I going to hear or feel anything? You guys have me nervous now.
Click to expand...

If the bearing is too tight it could get too hot and fail. You will hear some bad noises when that happens. Based on your description of the work you did, I think it unlikely that your bearing is too tight. If the bearing is a little loose it's not ideal but probably won't be a problem given that it's the front axle and spends its days coasting for the most part, assuming you are not driving around in 4wd all the time.


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LOL!! I love all the variety of info here! I was in your exact same situation when I installed my Adams front 1350 drive line. It requires you take the factory pinion flange off the front axle and install a different one on. So, after sifting through all the different opinions, I called Adams and spoke to one of their techs. He told me yes, there IS a crush-sleeve and NO, there isn't a set torque number you can dial up and hit with your torque wrench. This is the "go-on-your-own" part. Since I wasn't using an impact wrench he told me to use my breaker bar and tighten the nut down "tight". WTF right? Well that's what I did and I did feel the nut tighten down and kind of stop. I applied a bit more pressure and then I felt the nut kind of "give" a little bit. That's right where I stopped. No problems since then and 15k miles later still no issues. There isn't a definitive answer on this. You can take all the readings you want, but short of completely stripping and replacing every part in the front end, this is another method. Good luck James![emoji106]


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