Pinion seal replacement on Salisbury axle - setting lash

[chris snell]

I replaced the pinion seal on my Salisbury axle this week. Pulled the flange, oil slinger, and the bearing out and cleaned them up. Tapped in a new, modern Dana/Spicer seal, and reassembled everything. Before taking things apart, I noted one exposed thread on the pinion shaft and used a chisel to punch marks in both the shaft and nut for easy re-installation.

When I reassembled, I followed some old instructions from Keith and torqued the nut to 125 ft-lb. The pinion felt very tight and there was no rotational lash whatsoever, but I reinstalled the driveshaft and went for a 20 mile drive.

When I came back, I pulled the DS off the pinion and there was now a little bit of rotational lash. I noticed that my nut was still a little bit looser than the original setting, so I tightened a little more, maybe 130 ft-lb and noted that the lash was barely there. It was pretty tight. I went for another drive, maybe 5 miles, and when I came back, I felt the diff cover and it was very warm to the touch. Maybe 120-130F?

Is this normal, for a diff to be this warm after a 5-mile drive from cold start?

I think that it will probably be just fine and I should just drive it YOLO, but maybe one of y'all have done the job before and have some insight.

 

[jymmiejamz]

I have a couple of questions. Did your marks line up once you torqued it? Is there a crush sleeve for then pinion to set the preload? If so, it would probably take more than 125 ft lbs to crush it more. I’ve done hundreds upon hundreds of pinion seals and diff rebuilds at the dealership and typically would mark the pinion but in relation to the pinion and just tighten the nut with an impact. A snap on 1/2” impact isn’t strong enough to crush the crush sleeve in most Land Rover diffs.