Thanks so much guys! This is my first foray into the land of axles, read your responses, spent couple of days watching clips on Y and finally starting to get it. For the moment my plan is to replace the pinion seal and re-tighten the pinion nut back to exact same state as before. Playing with crush sleeve or its eliminator requires pulling the front pinion bearing as a minimum and most likely the carrier with subsequent readjustment of the carrier bearings preload and the backlash - am I correct? Frankly, I am not yet ready to plunge that deep.
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The tool for the job is a dial-type inch# torque wrench... usually about $200. You can't use a click type because the torque from static to rolling is higher than simply rolling torque. You want the rolling torque value.
Thanks, I realized that early on sensing how easy was it to rotate the pinion. We used to have boxy dial-type tool at work, but it has mysteriously disappeared, I now can guess where
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I use a cheap bar style inch pound torque wrench (about $20) I had to make an adapter to get from 1/4" to the 3/4" socket. Measure while you rotate it around in a smooth/ consistent manner.
Figured that one too, got that same type of wrench and 1/2" to 3/4" socket adapter from Menard's. Problem is, the tool I got could hardly measure anything below 20 inch/pounds, need to either find more sensitive one or use the breaker bar of known length and a fish scale
Cheers,
Alex