Bryans2871

Hey guys, need some help.

I recently installed a 2.5 Teraflex lift and figured I'd go ahead and replace the front driveshaft too. I ordered a 1310 from JE Reel. After reading the instructions, it specifically states that the driveshaft should only be used with lift kits that have adjustable control arms as the pinion angle of the front axle needs to point directly toward the TC. I opted for a lift that kept the stock control arms and I have installed Rancho geo correction brackets so I have no way to currently adjust pinion angle.

In addition, when I ordered the JE Reel shaft, I thought I was getting basically the same thing as the Adams (bolt on to the pinion yoke). That is not the case, the JE shaft comes with a replacement yoke for pinion and TC.

I have two questions:
1. Has anyone run this shaft with stock control arms and without the ability to change the pinion angle to what JE Reel recommends? If so, what were your results and what if any issues could that cause? In the future I plan to replace all control arms with adjustable but I don't know when that will be.

2. When replacing the pinion yoke, how precise do you need to be with adjusting the pinion torque to rotate?

resharp001

Your correction brackets are doing the same thing as adjustable arms (and are actually better for on-pavement purposes). They're rotated the pinion back down a bit. You should be just fine. It's not an exact science. There is definitely a line between driveline vibes and too high of caster (too low pinion), but it's a pretty decent range of tolerability.

Most the videos will tell you to remove the pinion nut, remove the factory flange, install the new yoke, and get the pinion nut to ~160 ft lbs. I'd add throw some salt over your shoulder.

Bryans2871

Haha, salt will definitely be involved.

So for the pinion yoke, are you saying the torque spec on the nut is more important than the torque to rotate? The instructions seem to be pretty adimant that I need to take "torque to rotate" readings and, once the new yoke is on, that I need to be about 5 in lbs higher than the original torque to rotate. Something to do with the crush sleeve? I dunno, I just don't want to bite off more than I can chew and certainly don't want to cause issues I don't already have.

resharp001

well, if you were doing a proper gear install, that is the way to do it, but unless you're going to pull wheels, brakes, shafts, drain gear oil, etc, trying to measure torque like that is going to be very, VERY hard. This is no different than any other time you need to remove that pinion nut, like for replacing the pinion seal. It happens every day. Most will tell you re-torque to 160lbs or so and call it a day. I'd tell you any time you remove that pinion nut, which is most likely "technically" a single use thing, you open yourself up to any possibility. I'd just watch several DS replacement vids and see what you feel comfortable with yourself, taking accountability.

The risk you face is is the crush washer being changed. If you are using a breaker bar/hand tools, you're gonna have a fun time anyhow and you're not going to risk that. If you have a SnapOn impact and industrial air compressor then don't just keep hammering on that thing when it's tight. . In all honesty, you can lose sleep over this stuff, but again, people do it at home daily, so don't stress too much.

I'm pretty sure those specific instructions are to eliminate liability. Look at instructions for other popular driveshafts like Coast, Tom Woods, and Adams, and watch some vids.

Sv_dude

@resharp001 You sure you’re not getting confused with the transfer case yoke? That torque is 160ft/lbs. as for the pinion yoke, you don’t torque that to any spec when replacing the yoke for a drive shaft. I just tapped the yoke onto the pinion gear end, tightened the nut down till everything was tight and the play in the yoke was the same as it was when I removed the factory yoke. I’ll tell you that if I torqued the pinion nut down to 160 ft/lbs that I would likely crush the crush washer a bit and messed up my gears.

edit: oh, and I didn’t need to measure any before and after rotational force of the gears... this is per adams drive shaft instructions and my own mechanical intuition (take that with a grain of salt).

resharp001

To the best of my knowledge, the minimum torque spec on either front or rear pinion nut is 160 ft lbs (per the old torque spec values on the web). Now, I don't claim to be infallible, and anyone is welcome to correct that if they disagree. I am pretty confident you will see most saying 160 ft lbs in instructions to replace a pinion seal which also requires removing the pinion nut and flange/yoke as well. I will tell you I firmly believe it takes way more force to further compress the crush sleeve than most normal people have on hand.

I would suggest anyone doing this to research for themselves and take the words of advice they receive anywhere as just that.

I will reiterate....anytime at all you remove that pinion nut, you open yourself up to some liability as far as your gears and bearings are concerned. I'd go so far as to tell you that even if you completely unload your axle so that you have nothing but a freespinning pinion in the diff (no shaft or carrier), you STILL nee a VERY nice inch/lbs bar style torque wrench to measure pinion bearing preload....which isn't priced in a range that most people are willing to buy.

Sv_dude

Ya know, I don’t like to admit this because it’s a cheap shot at me getting new parts... but sometimes I welcome things breaking because I can then justify me getting new parts. So, worst case, if I messed up my gears with my technique then I have the justification to regear to something in the 5’s ratio.

resharp001

Here is a little tale as an example. I have a buddy who owns a shop. A combination of being thrifty and wanting to see/learn/help with the regear process I took the jeep to his shop and did all the grunt work of tear down and reassembly but had his two guys that did all his regears at the time "help" with the actual gearing process. It was a good learning experience. Anyhow, fast forward several years and I had scored a practically new Adam's 1350 rear DS for just about no money. That DS is almost $700 so I was ecstatic to say the least and it was a couple weeks before my first trip to Moab so the timing for the upgrade was perfect. So I pulled my rear DS, installed new yoke, and went to put the pinion nut back on. Thing wouldn't go on well at all and all my efforts really started to get frustrating. Upon close inspection, a few of the threads on the end of the pinion were jacked up, so trying to get ANY pinion nut on was a grim ordeal. That was the first time that particular pinion nut had been off, so this is something that happened during that regear, though I have no clue how. That pinion steel is a lot stronger than the nut, so not like the nut could have cross threaded it. I filed and filed and filed to clean up those threads and somehow got the original nut back on after trying a few brand new ones. I never felt good about that but it got me by for the time. You just never know what you're going to find or have to deal with. Any time those nuts are removed there's some risk.

This is also one reason replacing a simple pinion seal is one of the worst jobs in my head. Any time that nut is removed a little doubt can creep in your head. At least during that job you are not usually changing yokes/flanges so you can at least mark the location of the nut on the pinion and count threads so the nut gets back to exactly where it was before. When installing a new yoke that isn't possible. In all seriousness though, I think we tend to really overthink these things. Most of us don't have a massive industrial sized impact that can really hammer that nut on too tight, and when working on the garage floor with a 2' breaker bar or torque wrench the room with which to work and get the necessary leverage to reach 160 ft lbs is tight anyhow.

@Bryans2871 - You'll be just fine. It would be much simpler if there was just a single torque spec to hit with that nut in particular, but the reality is there isn't. Getting proper pinion bearing preload is merely a wide range of final torque that you could fall into. As Sv_dude alludes, get it so there is no play....that is the goal.

To really set the pinion bearing preload properly, you'd need an empty axle housing and a nice beam style torque wrench like this -

https://amzn.to/31DjfWv

Though, this little guy looks interesting -

https://amzn.to/31Gtut6

Bryans2871

resharp001, that's what I needed to hear. Throwing it on today. I like doing things myself but I'm no mechanic so I just like to double check I'm not getting in over my head. Thanks for the help!

scubatech

When setting up differential gears I like to use a crush sleeve eliminator. That way once the correct preload is established it doesn't change with torqueing the nut. Then you can just use an existing torque number such as your 160 ft. lbs. All Danna's used to be like this and a seal change didn't involve much thinking. It does take longer to get the preload correct but to me it's worth it. .........