dan3jeeps

...what is the best way to go about the project in terms of order of steps?

Install the DS first?

Install rear upper control arms and adjust for pinion angle second?

That seems to be the logical order in which to do this unless I am missing something.

I am thinking with the jeep sitting on the garage floor I can more easily remove/install the new yokes by using the weight of the jeep on the tires holding the pinion in place while tightening the pinion nut. If the jeep was on stands the wheels would rotate making it impossible to properly torque the pinion nut. Correct?

How should the jeep be positioned while adjusting the rear upper control arms? Since the jeep will be off its tires and the axle propped on jack stands for the UCA install and pinion angle setting, how does one set the pinion angle properly? Does it matter if the axle is raised enough that it would be farther upwards past where it would normally be sitting when on its tires? Or does the pinion angle remain constant through the driveshaft at all points so that the axle position when installing makes no difference? In other words, as long as the pinion and shaft share the same angle during the install, they always will at full droop through full coil compression?

Thanks!

river2c

Remove the stock drive shaft. Measure and record your stock pinion nut preload with an inch pound gauge/wrench before removing the stock flanges (tires off). Put a small amount of silicone sealant on the yolk splines. Install the yolks with new nuts and red locktite and torque to stock specifications (160 ft/lbs for pinion - 130 ft/lbs for TC). Continue to tighten until your pinion nut preload is the same as your recorded value but do nut loosen the nut. The pinion nut will still move slightly even with the tires on the ground. You need to brace the yolk with a pipe wrench or some other tool so it doesn't move at all to get a correct torque reading. Install the rear drive shaft and hardware. Then remove the stock rear upper control arms. Put a floor jack under the pinion and rotate it up until it is in line with the drive shaft or about 2 degrees less. Adjust the new upper control arms to the correct length and torque to 125 ft/lbs. Done.

dan3jeeps

How exactly is this done?

Apparently that step not necessary on the T-case output?

dan3jeeps

Got to bump this one. I really need an answer.

Thanks!

dkclimber

There are some really good write ups on differential gear installs. When you understand how important the load (torque) spec is on the pinion nut and how it can affect your differential gears it will may become clearer to you as to what is really going on at the pinion nut side of the drive shaft install. As mention the TC side is a simple factory torque spec as listed in the post above.

dan3jeeps

That would be great if you could post that. I have been reading from searches and have not got that all figured out yet. As others have mentioned the importance of getting this right, I certainly do want to NOT make a mistake here.

Dan

dan3jeeps

Denny2565,

Thanks for the link and write up.

Step 4 mentions finding the inch pounds on the pinion nut rotation. I am guessing that as the jeep is lifted off the ground, tires off and little or no force is working against turning the pinion nut that the measurement will be small? How much torque should I expect to see here? Is this really as simple as just putting the socket/torque wrench on the nut and turning it to gain a reading? All you are doing is reading how much torque it takes to rotate the pinion? Again, I have never done this so my questions might be very elementary.

After the reading we remove everything.

Then install all the new stuff. Torque the nut down to 160 foot pounds.

Then the critical part: checking the rotation torque again. We measure it the same way we did before pulling the pinion nut off. Turning the pinion with the TQ wrench we determine how much torque it takes to rotate the pinion. Adjust the nut down to where it takes 5 foot ponds MORE to rotate the pinion than before we took it off.

Simple as that?

dan3jeeps

Sweet!

Thanks again!