I’m rebuilding the Chrysler 8.25 axle in my fiance’s Liberty. The pinion bearings wiped out of it with 73,000 miles on it…grr. Anyway, I press all new bearings on everything. I put the pinion back in WITHOUT the crush sleeve or seal, and just snug the nut until the axial play is gone. I put the ring gear in and set that to check the pattern. It was perfect. So, I take it apart, put the crush sleeve on, put the outer bearing in, tap the seal in, put the yoke on, put the nut on and run it down. I torqued it to 210 ft/lbs as per the FSM. There is still a fair amount of axial play in the pinion. I figured maybe there was some resistance in the nut since it had that dry threadlock stuff on it, so I tightened the nut a bit further. The play is not gone and I started to pull the threads out of the nut :bloated:. What the hell is wrong here??? It’s almost like the crush sleeve isn’t crushing, but is that even possible?? I’m so aggravated with this right now and I really need to get this thing fixed tomorrow!!! I’ve done tons of axles in the past and never had a problem before. Any ideas???
When I rebuilt the axle in the jeep also 8.25 I was told to ignore the 210ft/lbs. and tighten the pinion until it took (I think) 10-15 inch pounds to spin just the pinion. the ~10-15 inch pounds is the preload on the bearing and the preload is what is important. I cannot find the original source I used. It took a lot more force then I would have thought to crush the crush sleeve, probably more then the 210ft/lbs. also have fun with the spanner nuts, I had to make a tool to tighten and adjust those.