Dana 60 stuff , a speedi sleeve was required..

I don't really know what I was thinking not changing the pinion seal sooner. I did the rear hub seals and got the hubs installed the other day, kind of thought the pinion seal might be okay... not sure why I thought that

Filled the diff with oil last night and of course it was leaking this morning. I had drilled the case and installed a drain plug (the diff had a place for a drain plug, it just wasn't drilled) , I drained the oil into the clean container to save it. Got the pinion seal replaced, speedi sleeve installed on the yoke, I might have put it on a bit further , but the flange pretty much prevented that. I think, from my measurements that it should be okay. Also, installed sleeves on the spindles, so I should be good for a while.

I had the gears out a while ago to wire brush and flush out the axle tubes, they had a quarter inch of goo in them. When the gears were out I noticed that it didn't take much to spin the pinion shaft, I think it's supposed to be several inch pounds. I have the nut back to where it was right now, would it help to give it another little bit of a turn?

[kwmech]

A lot of times a brand new yoke is just about the same price as those sleeves

[Accelo]

This is going to be an subjective and spective answer biased on experience.
Yes, I would tighten it a little more and hope for the best.
By a little I mean 1/8 turn or less. See if it begins to turn harder.
Do no use an impact wrench as you will not have any control.
Typically the bearings do not wear enough to cause the preload to disappear...
Usually it's a bearing fit issue. This causes the bearing race to turn and it wears the pinion or case. The word typically used for this wear is fretting.
That said you have little to loose from tightening the pinion nut a little.
The condition of the differential is unknown. It worked before. It will likely work a while longer.

[Bigdav160]

It's been a while since I've been into a Dana 60. Do they use shims or a crush collar for pinion preload? I know a lot of early Dana's, the pinion preload was shimmed to the proper turning torque and the yoke was just torqued to a large number.

[geunther]

60s do have the crush sleeve. It is a one time torque thing where you sneak up on the proper turning torque. When I set them up, I always have two crush sleeves available in case I go to far.

Once you take off the yoke to replace a seal, you should install new crush sleeve.You can try to tighten slightly more to get up against the crush on an old sleeve. If successful you will have slightly more preload.

They do make a shim kit to eliminate the crush sleeve.

All the above is imperative to prevent vibration.

EDIT. My mistake, didn't realize some have, some do not.

Originally Posted by kwmech

A lot of times a brand new yoke is just about the same price as those sleeves

Yeah, they're not cheap, I used sturdi sleeves on the spindles, the quality seemed comparable and they're a lot cheaper.

From what I've read some of the later axles use a crush sleeve, this one doesn't appear to. I pulled out the large washer under the yoke and the forward bearing to check its condition. Didn't see a sleeve in there. This is the first axle I've had apart, however.

I was thinking just an extra 1/16 turn or so on the nut , it already seems like it's where it wants to be with a 2 foot breaker bar, but I'll see what I can do. Gonna need a helper on the brake pedal.

When I had the gears out to clean the tubes, the wear pattern was in the middle of the ring gear teeth , so I think the setup is okay? All of the teeth looked good and all of the bearings were in good shape, I was surprised considering the amount of gunk in the tubes. I drilled and tapped the vent hole for a barbed fitting and will bring a long hose and filter up into the frame rail to keep any water out in the future.

Just checked, no leak this morning. I had the driveshaft reworked, because I found a dent when I went to replace the u joints...I'll get that installed today and then go for a little spin around the block

[kwmech]

What year 60 are you working on?

Originally Posted by kwmech

What year 60 are you working on?

Truck is a 71, I think the axle is original.. can't be sure

[kwmech]

No crush sleeve.

[57taskforce]

Originally Posted by kwmech

No crush sleeve.

That’s what I was thinking too. I know for sure all the front GM 60’s I’ve messed with never have had sleeves, only shims.

I admit I don’t know that I’ve ever had the pinion out of a rear GM 60.

[kwmech]

About 20 years ago the only crush sleeve for the D60 was with the 5.38 gear set, which we promptly machined a solid spacer for and used the original shims. Then they started getting lazy with the set up and using the sleeve for the other factory sets