Torque specs variations for ring gear and pinion pre-load

[Soloflite]

Hi all, really looking for some clarification here. I have a 1997 Dodge Ram 1500 4x4 360 w/ a 9.25 rear end. Had ABS probs, so opened the rear diff to inspect the tone or exciter ring for bad teeth, I found two teeth bent up and the reason was my diff is trac loc and the clutch holders had broken up and found them lying on the magnet.
Because of this I pulled the whole setup, axles, pinion, and diff to replace all the bearing and install new clutch pac on the trac loc.
So now I’m stuck because of various docs stating different torqe specs.

Here’s my dilemma.
Looking at the Dodge 94/95/96 FSM all state that the pinion pre-load is 20-30 inch pounds, and lists the torque for the new ring bolts at 75ft lbs. The 98/2001 FSM’s all state pinion pre-load should be 15-35 inch pounds and 115 ft lbs torque for the ring bolts.


I’ve currently got the pinion preload set at 30 inch lbs.

I’m wondering which is correct and why they changed. I don’t have a 97 FSM, just the ones listed above that I pulled info from. Should I simply go w/ the later FSM's torque? Did they figure something out that wasn't noticed in 94-96? I believe I'll be fine w/ 30 inch pounds, but not sure, It’s not a big deal to pull the yoke and install a new crush washer to reset pinion preload to a bit less.


Thanks for any advice!

 

[Mopar440]

The 30 inch/lbs falls within the 20-30 which also happens to fall within the 15-35, so you are safe with the 30 in/lbs. The 9.25" diff had ring gear torque of 65 ft/lbs in earlier models then 75 ft/lbs in later models. There is a big mess about this. All of my older New Process 9 1/4" diffs have a spec of 65-75 ft/lbs. My ZF diff, has a spec of 65, 115 and 166 ft/lbs.

The older New Process diffs used a 7/16-20 UNF L/H thread ring gear bolt and continued to use that size until some point in 2010 when they switched to the ZF (German) variant of the diff.

The ZF uses a larger 14mm X 1.5 R/H thread bolt.

The maximum torque for a Grade 8 7/16-20 UNF bolt is 80 Ft/Lbs.
Torqueing to either 65 or 75 Ft/Lbs is fine as long as all 12 are the same torque. I would also use Loc-Tite as well. Usually they use red on those bolts.