ProRock 44 Pinion nut torque and pre-load specs

NevadaZielmeister

NevadaZielmeister

Caught the Bug
Heylo,

So I notice that my front pinion yoke has a bit of play side to side (the pinion itself is fine). I have the Dynatrac ProRock 44 running 5.38 gears which is coupled to a JE Reel 1350. So I need to retighten the pinion nut. Does anyone know what the general range is for the pinion nut torque and also what the pinion torque to rotate?

Any information would be appreciated.
 
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If your pinion has side to side play, you should be leaking fluid everywhere. Are you?

On a new install, 160 ft. lbs. of torque is what you would tighten your front pinion nut to. Unless you removed your pinion nut in the past, there should be no reason why it would come loose.
 
Torque it down and hope for the best. You'll need a yoke holder. As far as your question regarding turning resistance, I'm pretty sure it's 22-35 inch pounds for proper spec, but that can only be accurately measured with axles and carrier removed. It's extremely sensitive.
 
160 ft-lbs for the nut, as Eddie said. The pinion torque to rotate should be 10-20 inch-lbs, but you can’t check it without removing your axle shafts and differential carrier.
 
Also, do you happen to know if your ProRock 44 was assembled with a crush sleeve eliminator?
 
wayoflife said:
If your pinion has side to side play, you should be leaking fluid everywhere. Are you?

On a new install, 160 ft. lbs. of torque is what you would tighten your front pinion nut to. Unless you removed your pinion nut in the past, there should be no reason why it would come loose.
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There is no fluid leaking. I just noticed the play while I have been trying to locate a clanking sound from somewhere in the front end. I yanked the front driveshaft back and forth and saw the play in the yoke in relation to the pinion shaft. I hope this is only a matter of tightening the pinion nut.

As for the clank sound, I am going to check the torque on the front wheel spacers, since I cannot find anything else in front after spending about 15 minutes yanking on everything I could think of.

WJCO said:
Torque it down and hope for the best. You'll need a yoke holder. As far as your question regarding turning resistance, I'm pretty sure it's 22-35 inch pounds for proper spec, but that can only be accurately measured with axles and carrier removed. It's extremely sensitive.
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Yeh, the funny thing, QuicksilverJK and I were testing this, but with wheels on but off the ground since his rig had the transmission out. We were reading about 35 inch pounds on average. With his gearing so close to mine, looks like around 30-35 inch pounds makes sense. And yes, it is very sensitive, in that it was 50 inch pounds to get the stream moving along and then the average above.

wayoflife said:
Also, do you happen to know if your ProRock 44 was assembled with a crush sleeve eliminator?
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I am not sure and am going to call Dynatrac tomorrow to find out if their build sheet has that information on it. I really did not get a single sheet of paper from ORE when I picked up the vehicle.

Thank you guys so much! HUGE help!
 
Before you do anything, describe the sound you are hearing. Is it constant, intermittent, only when moving, only when turning??
 
If you're referring to rotational play, that may be completely normal. Can you rock the pinion side to side without rotating it? That is not normal.
 
wayoflife said:
Before you do anything, describe the sound you are hearing. Is it constant, intermittent, only when moving, only when turning??
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Only when moving, intermittent, usually with certain bumps and/or road conditions. Kinda a clank and sometimes a rattle/clank. I rarely here it while off-roading. I get it sometimes with turning, sometimes not. I think I know what you were thinking, and I am hopeful it is NOT that problem.
 
NevadaZielmeister said:
Only when moving, intermittent, usually with certain bumps and/or road conditions. Kinda a clank and sometimes a rattle/clank. I rarely here it while off-roading. I get it sometimes with turning, sometimes not. I think I know what you were thinking, and I am hopeful it is NOT that problem.
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If you know what I'm thinking, you're way ahead of me cause I haven't a clue as to what might be going on. Just trying to ask questions to get a better idea of where you should be looking and based on what you're telling me, your pinion is NOT where you should be looking. If it were, the noise you're hearing would be constant when moving.
 
NevadaZielmeister said:
Only when moving, intermittent, usually with certain bumps and/or road conditions. Kinda a clank and sometimes a rattle/clank. I rarely here it while off-roading. I get it sometimes with turning, sometimes not. I think I know what you were thinking, and I am hopeful it is NOT that problem.
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Shot in the dark, but retorque your track bar bolts. I have had so many random abnormal intermittent noises that were corrected by doing that.
 
wayoflife said:
If you know what I'm thinking, you're way ahead of me cause I haven't a clue as to what might be going on. Just trying to ask questions to get a better idea of where you should be looking and based on what you're telling me, your pinion is NOT where you should be looking. If it were, the noise you're hearing would be constant when moving.
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If I was concerned about a sound from the front axle and gearing, it being a constant whirring sound, correct?. But no, the sound is different. I am not sure why I was yanking on it, but figured, while I was done there, why not? I think the sound is from somewhere else and I read about heating shielding but all of it appears in order so far.

Thank you again for all of the help Eddie.
 
wayoflife said:
based on what you're telling me, your pinion is NOT where you should be looking. If it were, the noise you're hearing would be constant when moving.
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I don't think he was looking at the pinion being the culprit of the noise, but rather that he stumbled upon another concern while looking for the noise. I have not seen the play on his rig, but he has seen mine and says that it is vastly different. If his axle was built with a crush sleeve than the only correct way to handle this is to start over with a fresh sleeve, or change to a Crush sleeve eliminator. But this brings the question to mind, What do people do when they install aftermarket yokes on a factory crush sleeve axle. I guarantee the majority are not setting pinion nut with a new sleeve.


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QuicksilverJK said:
I don't think he was looking at the pinion being the culprit of the noise, but rather that he stumbled upon another concern while looking for the noise. I have not seen the play on his rig, but he has seen mine and says that it is vastly different. If his axle was built with a crush sleeve than the only correct way to handle this is to start over with a fresh sleeve, or change to a Crush sleeve eliminator. But this brings the question to mind, What do people do when they install aftermarket yokes on a factory crush sleeve axle. I guarantee the majority are not setting pinion nut with a new sleeve.
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Yeah, I get that but if his pinion were actually loose, he'd be leaking gear oil out of the seal. Dicking around with something like a pinion nut when it isn't needed could cause more harm than good as you are clearly aware of. Most people installing new yokes do NOT use an inch lb. torque wrench and tighten the nut to the proper preload. This is why so many people end up with friend bearings.
 
Well he is armed with a baseline for what my PR took to turn, assembled like his will be for the test. and he is calling Dynatrac for recommendation before messing with anything on his. Is it possible that he might have caught a problem before it got loose enough to leak? Like I said I have not personally seen it, but I do see it as being a possibility.


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QuicksilverJK said:
Well he is armed with a baseline for what my PR took to turn, assembled like his will be for the test. and he is calling Dynatrac for recommendation before messing with anything on his. Is it possible that he might have caught a problem before it got loose enough to leak? Like I said I have not personally seen it, but I do see it as being a possibility.
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Clearly, you've never had a loose pinion nut before. If you had, you'd know that you'd hear it loud and clear and there'd be no question about it. Also, if it were really loose enough to move around, oil WOULD be slinging out of the seal - I guarantee it. But hey, it's not my Jeep.
 
Your right I clearly have no mechanical experience. I have not had a loose pinion nut on my jeep. But I have seen loose pinion nuts on large axles that had yet to leak. This is part of a good PM inspection on any vehicle. I am sorry if you feel like I am attacking your experience here, because I am not. I am only stating that everything that has ever leaked didn't until it did.
Honestly I feel this is turning into a rather pointless argument since neither of us have seen the actual axle in person.


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QuicksilverJK said:
Your right I clearly have no mechanical experience. I have not had a loose pinion nut on my jeep. But I have seen loose pinion nuts on large axles that had yet to leak. This is part of a good PM inspection on any vehicle. I am sorry if you feel like I am attacking your experience here, because I am not. I am only stating that everything that has ever leaked didn't until it did.
Honestly I feel this is turning into a rather pointless argument since neither of us have seen the actual axle in person.
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LOL!! I never said that you have no mechanical experience, just that you've never had a loose pinion nut on your Jeep and you just admitted as much. IF you had, you'd know that you could HEAR it well before it ever started to leak - you know, because the gears would no longer be setup right. This is specifically why I had asked Neil about what he was HEARING. You may think all this is pointless but his answer told me what me what I may not have been able to see.

Not trying to argue with you or your experience, just trying to suggest that small steps should be taken so that things aren't potentially made worse. But again, not my Jeep. I know you guys are buddies I would defer to your expertise.
 
wayoflife said:
Clearly, you've never had a loose pinion nut before. If you had, you'd know that you'd hear it loud and clear and there'd be no question about it. Also, if it were really loose enough to move around, oil WOULD be slinging out of the seal - I guarantee it. But hey, it's not my Jeep.
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I am by no means an expert and certainly no where near the experience of most of the people on here. So just to clarify, are you saying that my pinion nut could not be loose just a little? And if it were, then what would it sound like? Being that this is my first built up Jeep, maybe the sound is there but I have no clue what it means. There are a ton of sounds coming out of this thing half the time.

If I may speak for QuicksilverJK, he has a lot of experience fixing much larger vehicles in the field. That is not to say either person is wrong since you are all relying on information from me, the newb who needed to look at a diagram to figure out which part was which.

Either way, I appreciate the attention here and hopefully after my discussion with Dynatrac, it will be a simple 160 foot pound setting on my torque wrench to the pinion nut and my yoke will not be moving around side to side anymore.
 
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