Rear pinion crush sleeve.

[Marlboroman]

My rear pinion has come loose again. Not a big deal whatever I can fix it again. I’m hoping I’m just unlucky. It’s come loose at factory spec once and once on my own repair. I’m not sure what’s causing it. Anyone else been thru multiple crush sleeves? If so have you tried over torquing it a pound or two to any positive results?

 

[TAC71]

How did you lock the nut?
Lock tight?
Staked?

 

[GCATX]

We used to start the "crush" in a hydraulic press and finish with ugga duggas on the milwaukee.

 

[Marlboroman]

How did you lock the nut?
Lock tight?
Staked?

I did put a little dab on the threads. The pinion nut isnt staked like some cv joints. Service manual states to dab the drive shaft to flange bolts but nothing for the pinion nut itself. I put a little on thinking it would help. I don’t believe the nut to be backing off but rather the crush sleeve to be disintegrating creating slop.

 

[sc85fiero]

Pinion bearing wear/deterioration or pinion bearing races not being set all the way to the shoulder they sit on can cause pinion looseness over time. If a new pinion nut was not used I would suspect that could be the cause too as they do have sort of a permanent locktite on them.

Honestly your best bet is to go through the whole diff removing the carrier and pinion and refreshing with all new bearings and obviously replacing anything else you see damaged.

setting pinion preload requires a huge amount of torque to start the crush sleeve but once it starts to do its job its VERY easy to go way too far really quick.

-Joe

 

[rschap1]

With all the force it took for me to crush sleeves, I would never think one would collapse, shrink, or get smaller on it's own.
My guess, but I been wrong before, and learn new stuff quite often.
Good luck with the fix and it being permanent.

 

[Gumby]

I did put a little dab on the threads. The pinion nut isnt staked like some cv joints. Service manual states to dab the drive shaft to flange bolts but nothing for the pinion nut itself. I put a little on thinking it would help. I don’t believe the nut to be backing off but rather the crush sleeve to be disintegrating creating slop.

There is the possibility you are getting axel rap. Is the truck supercharged? The previous owner had this problem with our truck to the point the pinion got into the Carrier E locker. I did a crush delete when I rebuild the entire rear end.
All because of axel rap.

 

[Marlboroman]

Pinion bearing wear/deterioration or pinion bearing races not being set all the way to the shoulder they sit on can cause pinion looseness over time. If a new pinion nut was not used I would suspect that could be the cause too as they do have sort of a permanent locktite on them.

Honestly your best bet is to go through the whole diff removing the carrier and pinion and refreshing with all new bearings and obviously replacing anything else you see damaged.

setting pinion preload requires a huge amount of torque to start the crush sleeve but once it starts to do its job its VERY easy to go way too far really quick.

-Joe

Thanks for the reply, I rebuilt it back in Dec of 21 with all new parts from ford. Seems to be happening every 80k miles or so. I’ll do it again if I can’t find a crush sleeve eliminator. They are available thru 11 model and mines a 14. Guessing that’s when the changes were made to splines and such from memory. I drained the oil yesterday and it was surprisingly clean, a few flakes of gold/copper colored metal which from memory the sleeve was the only metal colored that way. Definitely will do the pinion bearings as I don’t see how they won’t be pitting.

 

[Marlboroman]

There is the possibility you are getting axel rap. Is the truck supercharged? The previous owner had this problem with our truck to the point the pinion got into the Carrier E locker. I did a crush delete when I rebuild the entire rear end.
All because of axel rap.
View attachment 460745View attachment 460746

Very likely, not yet on the charger. Headers and tune, does rip. What delete did you use?

 

[TAC71]

Pinion bearing wear/deterioration or pinion bearing races not being set all the way to the shoulder they sit on can cause pinion looseness over time. If a new pinion nut was not used I would suspect that could be the cause too as they do have sort of a permanent locktite on them.

Honestly your best bet is to go through the whole diff removing the carrier and pinion and refreshing with all new bearings and obviously replacing anything else you see damaged.

setting pinion preload requires a huge amount of torque to start the crush sleeve but once it starts to do its job its VERY easy to go way too far really quick.

-Joe

This^^^^
Plus... I would get the crush sleeve eliminator.