(not sure if this belongs in modified or not) Got me an 8.8 for the cherokee, but the pinion seal leaks real bad... as i went to take the pinion nut off expecting a fight, it backed off the threads with very little resistance... arent pinion nuts supposed to be fairly tight? is it possible i have a crushed crush sleeve?

 

Change the seal and used a new nut with loc-tite. The nut may have been removed before and reused.

Max

 

In any case I would check the pattern before use. The crush sleeve could be compressed more then it should. Last person could have set their impact on kill and pulled the pinion in.

 

Could i do this by checking the pre-load torque requred to rotate the assembly? I saw somewhere it should be around 20 in pounds but i only kind of know what im doing

 

You can but that's only half the story. There are different specs for new and used assemblies. If it was me I would put marking compound on the ring gear and spin it over a few times. Then check the pattern. I have had a ton on 8.8s in mustangs and sometimes took little effort getting the nut off...but all was still fine...but I always pulled the cover to check anyways.

 

finally got around to checking with marking compound, i have drivers side heel and coast side toe it looks like according to the charts... does this mean that i need to tighten the pinion nut a little more to bring the pinion into the ring gear? i tried tightening it a little, but once i had the nut tight, i couldnt get it to turn much without any help to keep the assembly from spinning.

 

getting compound was a pain, neither Autozone nor O'Reilly's carried it, but luckily someone in line behind me had half a packet left that came with an assembly kit that he gave me... could definitely use a little more as it was hard to read