Loose Pinion?/Too much backlash? leavin in 36 hrs so i gotta fix

[deeber]

I was greasin the driveline today after work, up until today I had known I had a bad pinion oil seal, it leaks a little but thats about it. Lately its been leaking more. I was checking the play in the driveshaft and it seemed way too much. At the tranny feels good but when I checked the play at the diff I hear clanking. It seems like there is almost a 1/4 inch of backlash which is way too much. The pinion nut is staked onto the pinion but it still moves forward and back maybe an 1/8 of an inch. It seems like something is missing (shims/slinger/flanges?), just way too much play in the rear. There is no motion of the pinion nut relative to the pinion. im leavin for the beach to go wheelin for the weekend and i NEED to fix this.

ANY ideas what it could be? please help

[wrnchplr]

There is a crush sleve in there and it sounds like it has gone bad...that is a

whole lot of work to fix, you have to tear the rear 3rd apart. there is a soild one

out there for not much. Your best option at this time is to swap it out tell you

get it fixed.

[ZUK]

I agree.....you will need a whole rebuild sometime in the future but I bet you can do that beach trip if you snug the nut up just enough to take the wobbly play out....you can even snug it a little tighter than that and when the flange starts to turn with some resistance then you are all set. Then change the Hypoid fluid and put some thick 140W or 80W140 in.
Later on, a solid collar upgrade is the pro way to go......your pinion bearings are probably in need of a vacation :) ZUK

[mistapuggs]

I had this happen once and my outside pinion bearing had actually destroyed itself. I thought it was just an oil seal because thhe leak kept getting worse and worse. Bought a seal, put it in and, put the pinion flange back on, tightened down the stake nutuntil there weren't any more threads and it was still all over the place.

Kind of a bummer but if it is a bearing you would be crazy not to address it before the trip. It's like a ticking time bomb. BUT if you can tighten up the stake nut like others have said, and get the play out of the pinion then you will likely be okay.

Just my 2cents

[22REkid]

I agree with all the statements above about the crush sleeve needing to be replaced but I don't think it it will make the backlash any different as you can't really measure backlash by the driveshaft. The part about the flange moving back and forth 1/8 of an inch, I'm sure a new crush sleeve wil fix that and to the best of my knowlege, the 3rd member doesn't need to be disassembled to replace the cruch sleeve. I think you can take off the pinion nut, flange, oil seal, and the outer washer and bearing and pull the crush sleeve out and replace it and put it back together. You might want to get with ZUK on that one though.

[deeber]

Alright, so i spent the better part of the morning messing with that pinion, got the nut off and checked the oil seal. The seal seemed to be fairly new so I didnt replace.

I pushed the bearing in all the way with two screwdrivers (flange was removed at this point) and felt the pinion. It felt much tighter, the wobbliness, if thats a scientific term was taken out of it. The "backlash" was still around 1/4 - 1/2 an inch. Basically I just took it apart and put it back together.

I did talk to someone at a local Toyota shop and he said that if i was not hearing any noises or clanking while driving and it wasnt binding as i was turning the flange then it should be ok for now. I tried to put it back the way it was before removal and i think i actually put that nut back on a little tighter. The guy at the Toy shop said to tighten until the point just before it begins to bind and then stake the nut. I did all that.

So i was driving it around this afternoon, givin it a little hell to make sure it'll hold up and it seemed ok. The diff is still leakin quite a bit. Oil drippin off the bottom of the diff from the front seal and oil drippin from the gas tank (slung there out of the flange). This seems to be an excessive leak.

Reading all this, what are my chances of surviving:
4 hours on the road ~65mph
3 days of wheelin in the sand
4 hours back
????

Im taking extra hypoid to top off midway through and possibly before the road trip home.

[deeber]

i also realize that the ring and pinion will have to be replaced eventually, which i was planning on doing anyways.

is it possible to remove the rear drive shaft an run drive in 4H, basicallyl 2wd through the front?

[bbagwell]

Yes if you take the rear driveshaft off and put it in four high you basically have a front wheel drive truck.

[azredliner]

I was greasin the driveline today after work, up until today I had known I had a bad pinion oil seal, it leaks a little but thats about it. Lately its been leaking more. I was checking the play in the driveshaft and it seemed way too much. At the tranny feels good but when I checked the play at the diff I hear clanking. It seems like there is almost a 1/4 inch of backlash which is way too much. The pinion nut is staked onto the pinion but it still moves forward and back maybe an 1/8 of an inch. It seems like something is missing (shims/slinger/flanges?), just way too much play in the rear. There is no motion of the pinion nut relative to the pinion. im leavin for the beach to go wheelin for the weekend and i NEED to fix this.

ANY ideas what it could be? please help

Mine was in the same condition and it lasted a few months after I noticed it. I didn't baby it either. When I changed it there were some grinding noises coming from the diff.

[keyice]

backlash can be estimate, but not checked at the flange, sounds like the crush sleeve isn't putting tension on the pinion bearings, you can adjust the backlash only by tightening the carrier nuts,stock gears .007 to .010 I shoot for .008 on all of them, tools are in expensive to check them like 20 bucks

look up ZUK and his website gearinstalls.com he is really good with toy diffs.

[deeber]

well i made it back home last nite without any problems to report during the trip and the diff still sounded ok when i got home. I put about 100 miles on the truck just wheelin around in the dunes and on the beach, didnt really go to easy on it either. I guess the gears will be next on the list. How long do you think this rear end will hold together? thanks

[azredliner]

How long do you think this rear end will hold together? thanks

It all depends how you drive it and how much you drive it. I drive mine almost every day and I put almost 50 miles per day. I drive normal (easy starts and stops, I don't burn rubber, easy on the deceleration, very consciencous or the diff) on the street. Most of the damage was from off-roading. Climbing and descending steep terrain is really the hardest on the R&P. The diff lasted about 6 months, before it became manditory to change.