Pinion Seal replacement

[Flryder]

I have a 2012 tradesman 1500 4.7 4 x 4 with a leaky rear pinion seal. I am trying to research the procedure for the rear pinion seal replacement. My Chiltons recommends to take the rotational torque before disassembly and add 5 in/lb to the rotational torque during pinion nut retightening at reassembly. Interweb searches have allot of different methods and much debate on replacing the crush washer. For those of you who have experience in this, what is the procedure?

Thanks

 

[Tach_tech]

The way I would recommend someone to do it if they’ve never done it. Mark the nut with a paint pen, remove the nut and count the turns. Then remove the yoke, replace the pinion seal. Re-install everything and put the nut back to the same spot.

You can measure rotating torque if you want, it’s a good way to give you peace of mind.

Technically speaking the service manual wants you to replace the crush sleeve. However you’ll be fine doing it the above way. I’ve done tons of them that way and never had an issue.

 

[Travelin Ram]

And mate the yoke back to the splines in the same position. Don’t reposition anything other than the seal and you’re fine.

 

[Gr8bawana]

I've replaced that seal on 2 different trucks, 1 dodge and 1 chevy, the way Tach-tech recommends and have never had any problems or leaks afterwards.

 

[Flryder]

Here is what I ended up doing:

1 measured the pre-disassembly rotational torque with the wheels off using a dial inch pound torque wrench. It was between 30 - 35 in/lb (needle on the dial torque wrench fluctuates)
2 did the disassembly (forgot to count threads) and pulled the seal, cleaned everything up, used mopar seal 68056356aa, added some rtv to the seals mating surface. The seal already had grease in it.
3 Lubed the flange seal surface with gear oil, put some RTV on the flange splines, put some RTV on the flat of the nut.
4 Installed pinion flange and tightened the pinion nut (mopar 6507901AA) to 100 ft/lb, checked rotational torque. Continued this process adding 5 ft/lb of torque each time until rotational torque was 35 - 40 in/lbs. Ended up with final torque at 180 ft/lb. Dented in the part of the nut that corresponds to the indentations on the end of the pinion shaft to keep the nut from loosening.
5 Added gear oil till it came out the fill hole.
6 Took the truck on a 15 minute test drive on roads ranging from 30 MPH to interstate at 75+ MPH.
7 No whining, vibrations, or leaks.

What do you think?

 

[46RamMan]

What tach-tech said... not really that critical sometimes we tend to make mountains out of mole hills...

 

[Flryder]

True 46RamMan, so tach-tech, do you think what I did is OK?

 

[Tach_tech]

True 46RamMan, so tach-tech, do you think what I did is OK?

Yup, perfectly fine.

 

[Flryder]

Appreciate the response.