I changed the pinion seal on my 56 Victoria a while ago and tightened the yoke back to where it was originally by scribing marks on the nut and shaft. Now it started to loosen up and making a slight growling noise. Is there a certain procedure to set the preload on the pinion bearing.  Thanks  Dave

SE Wis

There is a crush sleeve behind the bearing that will need to be replaced.

Ol'ford nutCentral Iowa

56 Vic w/292 & 4 spd.

I have heard of a crush sleeve. Is that obtainable from NAPA and do you just tighten down the pinion yoke nut as tight as you can to set the preload?  Thanks  Dave

SE Wis

The rearend must be taken apart to put in the crush sleeve. It goes on the pinion rear.

WTB 1955 Courier emblems    Mark, Jefferson City Missouri

With a new crush sleeve in place, you tighten the pinion nut until there is a slight drag on the pinion bearings.  If using a torque wrench to measure the drag, then 15-18 in/lbs of drag will suffice with used bearings.  It will be a higher value for new bearings.  For those of us with more experience with these rears, making a solid spacer the correct thickness in lieu of using a crush sleeve is the alternative method but the spacer thickness is critical to 0.001" so it's not for the faint of heart.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

You don't have to take the rear end apart to replace the sleeve. If you have put in a seal you were almost there. You just go in a little further, removing the bearing (race is pressed in so you don't have to remove it) and the next piece is the crush sleeve. You should be able to pick one of these up through a company the repairs rears or maybe even Ford. I think you can even get them through Macs. When you remove the old bearing take a close look at it for wear.

Ol'ford nutCentral Iowa

56 Vic w/292 & 4 spd.

Thanks again for the info. I'm sure this will help me.  Dave

SE Wis

BUT..there is absolutely no way to set proper pinion bearing preload with the pinion installed.  I've "backyarded" that fix the same way you did with reasonable success a number of times,but I slightly deformed the pinion nut in a vise or staked the nut after torquing and used red loctite during the final assembly.  If you're not going to take that pinion out, I think you'd be better off redoing what you did except help the nut stay tight using the backyard method.  In my opinion you have a much better chance of success doing that as opposed to guessing the preload using a new crush sleeve.  If you've never crushed a new one before, it can be an eye opening experience. 

 

Sorry, I did not know you could replace the crush sleeve with the pinion gear still in the housing. Don't mean to give bad info..

WTB 1955 Courier emblems    Mark, Jefferson City Missouri

My pinion seal is leaking. I can't believe you have to go through all this for a simple seal replacement. I don't doubt it but it's nuts! I just replaced the front pads on my Navigator. Ford has a sorry idea there too. A nightmare!

Doing Fords for 45 years. '56 Customline Victoria

E.J. in Havana FL