Solid Pinion Spacer vs. Crush Sleeve?

[CHOP SHOP]

Hows about if you are driving along at a good clip and slam your pinion yoke into a rock thus deforming the crush sleeve even more.

Happened to me.

The small pinion bearing keeps the pinion from moving closer to the ring gear.

The large pinion bearing keeps the pinion from moving away from the ring gear.


If the crush sleeve was damaged DUE TO hitting a rock, then the small pinion bearing had damage of the small bearings race was not seated all the way during install.

 

[Boonie Buster]

Hows about if you are driving along at a good clip and slam your pinion yoke into a rock thus deforming the crush sleeve even more.

Happened to me.

I have a feeling this would have happened if there was a solid spacer in there instead... :stirpot:

 

[Binder]

A failed crush sleeve COULD cause the pinion nut to lose it's torque. IF the pinion nut comes loose after losing torque the pinion could move inward and contact the carrier........I think most of these claims however are actually the pinion nut just came loose due to improper install and gets blamed on the crush sleeve....

 

[crash2]

I have done tons of them both ways and I can't find a single incident where a pinion nut loosened because of the crush sleeve. I do however prefer having the pinion bearings shimmed even though its more work/time to do so.

 

[1982cj7]

I have done 100's of diffs, i have seen pinion nuts come loose but more have been shim than crush sleeve styles, probably because the shim style are usually older diffs. I have never seen a crush sleeve fail without improper installation, usually after someone replaces a pinion seal.

 

[skinny_pedal]

I have never seen a crush sleeve fail without improper installation, usually after someone replaces a pinion seal.

Seen that plenty. Always measure preload before doing a seal:awesomework:

 

[crash2]

One thing to remember between a crush sleeve and shims is the fact a crush sleeve will retain some torsion against the nut. If you take 2 diffs side by side and loosen each pinion nut a 1/4 of a turn the shimed version will loose the preload fatster than the crush sleeved version.

As for replacing pinion seals I never check pre-load. I just make the nut to the head and yoke and return them to there location. Been doing that for 20+ years with zero failures. Without pulling the axles on a diff its very hard to get a constant/accurate preload reading at the pinion.

 

[Jim1]

I think if the crush sleeve is failing in the axle then you need to run bigger axles. Duh.

 

[KarlVP]

The small pinion bearing keeps the pinion from moving closer to the ring gear.

The large pinion bearing keeps the pinion from moving away from the ring gear.


If the crush sleeve was damaged DUE TO hitting a rock, then the small pinion bearing had damage of the small bearings race was not seated all the way during install.

Touche