Pinion seal is leaking. Shaft has some wobble. Rebuild or snug it up?

[Rusgo]

Only leaked for one day and then stopped

But shaft has wobble anyway. Does tightening the pinion nut pull the pinion tighter into it's race?

Axle has 200k on it. Time for a rebuild? How long can carrier bearings last? The ring and pinion itself?

 

[Big Bart]

Let's see what other's who have more experience than I have to say, but in the mean time check your diff fluid level if you are driving it.

 

[Philip1]

The early sterling 10.25 rear axles (known as the short pinion) had a bad habit of working the pinion nut loose and that could cause the pinion to wobble

 

[franklin2]

Like was said, the early units had a short splined area, so the splines tend to wear. This lets the yoke twist back and forth a little bit and work the nut loose.

Mind did this. I went ahead and took the nut off, pulled the yoke off, and replaced the seal. I then re-installed it and tightened the nut back up with some locktite on the threads. I expected it to loosen again shortely after but it's been holding for years now. If it gets loose again I think I will just tighten it again.

Some people have a heart attack about just tightening the nut without a new crush sleeve. I have done several rearends like this with no problems. If the nut is tight, I always make a ping mark on the nut and the shaft, and line the marks back up when I tighten the nut. Never had a problem doing this. But of course your nut is already loose. So tighten it as hard as you can with a breaker bar, and that should do it with some locktite.

 

[TNBrett]

I would probably want to pull the yoke and seal off so I could take a look at the front bearing. If it’s had a wobble to it for any time, that bearing and race could be shot. If you run it like that it will get worse, and start making metal. That will lead to big problems with everything in there.

If the bearing looks good, replace the seal put the yoke back on and tighten the nut just until you feel the tiniest amount of pre load on the pinion. That’s a little tricky because you’ve only got the rotation inside the backlash (slack between the teeth of the ring and pinion) to work with. Use your thumb and index finger on the yoke and rotate it back and forth taking up the backlash. If it feels like it spins freely back and forth, it doesn’t have enough preload. When it’s right, it feels like it take slightly more force to start it rotating than to keep it rotating. But not much force at all. Like 1 inch/lbs. Think tinker bell being able to turn it flapping her wings. But remember you need to feel for that inside the couple degrees of pinion rotation that is the backlash.