Baystate Jeepers

so i was putting new u-joints in my rear DS and i noticed the pinion nut was loose. is the torque spec ~220 ft/lbs? my torque wrench only goes to 100, what's the best way to check this? Luckily there's no crush sleeve involved being a 44 but i still want to make sure it's good and tight.

The FSM for the 2003 says 160-200 ft-lbs
(Best FSM I have here at work)

Kurt wrote:The FSM for the 2003 says 160-200 ft-lbs
(Best FSM I have here at work)

Just checked - same for a 2005 rear axle D44 pinion nut.

any thoughts as how to tell when i've hit 160-200? simply hammer at it with the impact 'til it's tight? (even though my impact is kinda weak) also, my jeep loves to roll when i tighten the pinion nut (and the ebrake sucks). think it will hold in gear in 4WD?

putting it in 4WD will help. Put it in 4Low with the trans in 1st. Then hit it like hell with the impact!

I tend to use the torque wrench to go to 100, then use a breaker bar and approximate the desired torque. For a baseline guage how much force it needs to start the nut turning from 100.

-Andy

Baseshakers wrote: my jeep loves to roll

*in the Emperor's voice* "Good.....good....."

I thought using a impact to tighten the pinion nut was a no no?? The reason being, your stressing the bearing.

i think it's ok for the 44 since there is no crush sleeve, but the 30 needs to be done with a breaker bar. i could be wrong though.

I do 200 ft lbs. The torque-to-rotate should be between 25-35 in lbs. with new bearings (I think the actual spec is 20-40), add 1-2 in lbs for new bearings.

Here's a good resource: http://www2.dana.com/pdf/5310-3.PDF

Baseshakers wrote:i think it's ok for the 44 since there is no crush sleeve, but the 30 needs to be done with a breaker bar. i could be wrong though.

Not all 30's use a crush sleeve. YJ HP 30's use shims, like a D44.

Chris wrote:I thought using a impact to tighten the pinion nut was a no no?? The reason being, your stressing the bearing.

An impact gun is usually a no-no because it is way easy to over-torque the nut... A real problem with a crush sleeve, slightly less with just shims.

The "right" answer is to torque it until you get the right amount of preload per the factory spec -- that is why there is a range, not a fixed value.

JW