8.8 Pinion Removal

[Rick Simons]

Started on my 3:73 install/diff rebuild/axle rebuild tonight but hit a snag: the pinion would not come out. It moved about .125" then stopped. As far I know the only things that could hold it up would be the front pinion bearing and/or the crush sleeve. Is there a special puller available for this? Tomorrow night I plan to put a pry bar between the pinion gear and the case while hitting the pinion shaft with a hammer. I don't think pulling the pinion should be this difficult.

 

[86GT351]

BFH

 

[rocky61201]

Yup, BFH. Besides, you don't really need to worry about damaging anything. If you're changing gears you're putting in a new pinion gear anyway along with a new bearings and a new crush sleeve.

Also, I don't know of any special puller that might work in instead of a big fucking hammer.

 

[Rick Simons]

BFH it is! You would think a 4 lb hammer would already be big enough though. I read on another forum that rust tends to develop between the bearing and the pinion, which would definitely hold up the progress. Seems strange that rust could occur in an assembly filled with oil though. I would think it's more likely fretting or something similar to that. One good reason to dislike crush sleeves. I'm tempted to change it over to shim type preload. In any case I'll attack again tonight with PB Blaster and a big prybar in addition to the 4 lb hammer.

 

[Juice]

I have seen a little rust between the pinion and the small front bearing made it super difficult to get pinion out. I put the pinion nut on to protect the threads and just kept hammering. Eventually, it moved.

 

[86GT351]

If you have a compressor with an Air Hammer that will pop it right out also.

 

[Norm Peterson]

For the least amount of hammering, after you hit it with the PB stuff, hammer on it a few times and leave it overnight.

Even though you're probably not going to save the pinion (and you're definitely not going to re-use the nut), it's probably best to run the nut down a few threads. The nut is softer metal and will deform, where the typical hammer head and the pinion are hardened and more likely to spall and spit metal fragments toward your face. At least wear shatter-resistant glasses.




Norm

 

[Rick Simons]

There was definitely fretting going on between the pinion.
and bearing. Looking for a spacer and some shims so I can eliminate the crush sleeve. Never liked those things.

 

[Rick Simons]

http://www.ratechmfg.com/fordspbs.htm

 

[rocky61201]

Smart man. On my next rebuild I'm switching to the spacer/shim setup. I'm done with crush sleeve's.

 

[Rick Simons]

Thanks!

 

[Rick Simons]

Found a Richmond Gear sleeve at Summit (sorry I wasn't able to copy the page for some reason.)This unit looks to be better finished than the Ratech unit. It's only 6 bucks so I got expedited shipping so I can put it all together tomorrow night. The older Mopar stuff I worked on back in the day all used a solid spacer and shims. Bulletproof.

 

[Norm Peterson]

So when you work with shims instead of crush sleeves, wouldn't you want to do all of the trial-fitting of shim pack thickness for pinion torque with a "well broken-in" pinion nut and save a brand-new nut for the final assembly"?


Norm

 

[Juice]

Crush sleeves have been working fine for me. But Norm is right, used nut to find shims needed. Or, you can measure the old crush sleeve, that would get you a pretty close starting point.

 

[Rick Simons]

Crush sleeves have been working fine for me. But Norm is right, used nut to find shims needed. Or, you can measure the old crush sleeve, that would get you a pretty close starting point.

So when you work with shims instead of crush sleeves, wouldn't you want to do all of the trial-fitting of shim pack thickness for pinion torque with a "well broken-in" pinion nut and save a brand-new nut for the final assembly"?

You're both right. I plan to measure the old crush sleeve for a baseline dimension and use the original nut just for setting the preload; I'll cut off the dinged-up section so it threads on easily. Here's the link to the Richmond spacer:


https://www.summitracing.com/parts/RMG-04-0011-1

 

[Juice]

In all honesty, all the 8.8 gears I installed using a new crush sleeve. But I have air impact tools, so crushing the new sleeve is no big deal.

 

[Rick Simons]

Well my solid spacer plan is unraveling rapidly. First, the spacer I bought is about .015" thicker than the old crush sleeve. Second, there is a fillet radius between the shoulder where the sleeve seats and the shaft, which would require machining a chamfer on the spacer for it to fit properly. Finally, the interference fit between the pinion and the drive flange would make it pretty time consuming to check the preload more than once. I'm sticking with the crush sleeve. After all, it's a street car.

 

[Norm Peterson]

The fillet radius issue could probably be solved by grinding a chamfer on that end of the spacer - I am assuming that the spacer is some sort of slip fit on the pinion. The 0.015" extra length . . . not much you could do without a lathe or a milling machine.


Norm

 

[Rick Simons]

The fillet radius issue could probably be solved by grinding a chamfer on that end of the spacer - I am assuming that the spacer is some sort of slip fit on the pinion. The 0.015" extra length . . . not much you could do without a lathe or a milling machine.


Norm

 

[Rick Simons]

Sorry, hot the post button accidently.
I'm gonna put it together with the crush sleeve. I need to get into the dealer next week for an airbag recall. If I ever build one of these with serious power & traction I'll use the solid spacer setup.