yoke and pinion seal replacements?
 

can anyone give me an idea how difficult it is (and ideally instructions how) to replace the yoke and pinion seals on a the front and rear diffs from a 2004.5 2500?

thank you.

(i did search and couldn't find anything about the yokes)

just trying to decide if i should have the dealership do it ($500) or if i can easily tackle it ($200)

Just out of curiosity why are you replacing the yokes? Unless they are really badly damaged they should be able to be reused. Even if there is scoring you can usually get a speedy sleeve to repair the damage. My seal was roughly $25 and I didn't need to do anything with the yoke other then some emery cloth on the sealing surface.

As CRXsi mentioned, I can’t imagine why you would need to replace the yokes unless you have been using the truck for mudding. In that case sometimes dirt will get between the seal and the machined surface on the yoke and polish a groove in the yoke, in which case the new seal may leak immediately or very soon after replacement. Otherwise you can continue to use the yoke.

As for the question of replacing the pinion seal, there are two different methods of setting the pinion bearing preload on any differential of the size and style in your truck. One method is with a crush collar (one time use), and the other is with shims. I have been rebuilding differentials for many years and have only seen crush collars used in small axles such as what would be in the front of a jeep.

Dana 60, 70 and 80 all use shims. I have not yet been inside any of the AAM differentials but I would hope they would use shims.

If you have an axle with the pinion bearing preload established with shims you can just torque the pinion nut to specifications after replacing the pinion seal.

If you have an axle with a crush collar (or you don’t know for sure) use the following procedure.

1) Remove driveshaft
2) With a chisel or cut-off wheel on a small grinder make a line across the nut and the end of the pinion.
3) Remove nut, washer, and yoke
4) Remove pinion seal
5) Install new pinion seal
6) Install yoke
7) Clean threads with brake clean
8) Apply Lock-tight to threads
9) Install washer and nut
10) Tighten nut until your marks line up and you are done

Sorry for being so long winded, this is an easy job but needs to be done correctly. I have seen too many mechanics just use an impact until the nut won’t tighten any more and call it good. This is the difference between an axle that lasts 50,000 miles and 150,000 miles.

Both diffs use crush sleeves, as do the one ton rears in Fords and Chevies.

You won't have to mess with the crush sleeve if you're only replacing the seal. Pull the axles, check the pinion preload (in inch-pounds), R&R the yoke and seal, retorque the pinion nut until the preload matches what you had before.

If you've never been into a diff before, it's a huge PITA. If you have an in-lb wrench, a decent impact, 4' breaker bars, yoke holders, etc... it's an evening job.

took the truck in yesterday, the dealership said both pinion seals and yokes should be replaced. evidently there's a groove on the yokes which means they should be replaced. all this per the dealership.

i don't mud, rarely tow and have only put on less than 10k miles in the last 12 months

I find it hard to believe they are that bad on such a new truck but there is a product called a speedy sleeve that slides over the yoke instead of replacing it, installa new seal and you're all good, i did this on my CJ 5 jeep and it lasted for years till i sold it, not a drop of oil (and it got used too, with steep drive line angles and lockers in both diffs I was impressed)
I can see a dealer not wanting to use this when they could sell you a new yoke but a smaller shop would and many shade trees most seal company's offer such a product
Good luck!

My Pinion seal and yoke were replaced under warranty 2004.5 truck.....should be good for 5 years...

when did they do the replacement? i'm at 105k miles and would suspect the dealership won't do it. they want about $250/axle. I've called around and spoken with 2 experienced techs who basically called BS on the yokes.

It appears that only a visual inspection was done and i don't know of any way to know for sure the yokes need replacement with only a visual inspection. think i'm going to find a new dealership for work in the future...

My work was done about 1 year ago and the truck only had about 50,000 miles on it, so maybe you are over the mileage part of the warranty...I would ask them anyway....
The dealership destroyed the yoke when they tried to change the rear pinion seal, they stripped out the bolts while trying to get them out without heating the Lok-tite...Then they took 16 days to find a new Yoke assembly.. Lucky I had 2 trucks at the time....Some of them are not to bright,, I now use a different dealer and service is 100%....

I have 215,000 miles on mine. The front just began to leak. Dealer was the only one that had the seal.

I can get one of the seals from NAPA, but not the other, and no yokes from NAPA. So at the least I'll need parts from the dealership, but should be able to save $200 or so in labor and maybe mroe in parts with another shop.

Need new lock nuts also.

I did my front seal a few months ago. Got the yoke off, and there was a groove in it. About $100.00 later I was installing the seal and the new yoke. Hasn't leaked a drop since.

I second the new lock nut statement.

Aaron

from what i understand reading the service manual it appears there is a fair amount to doing the seal / yokes like removing the axles

and i don't have a flare wrench or a pinion flange puller. is the repair easier then it appears?

The yoke is the piece in the front where the driveshaft bolts to. There is no need to pull axles. Pull the driveshaft, take the nut off, pull the yoke (easier said than done), pull the seal. Then it is install everything. Not too difficult if you are mechanically inclined.

You can't get an accurate measurement of pinion bearing preload with the axles installed.

Best to slip the shafts out of the carrier. You can mark the nut like someone else mentioned, but you can't do it that way if you're replacing the nut or the yoke.

Absolutely, If you replace the yoke you will have to remove the axle shafts and the ring gear to do this job correctly. You will be checking the pinion bearing preload with a inch pounds beam style torque wrench to measure rotating resistance and you need to check the bearings without anything in the rear or you wont get an accurate measure.

I can tell you that the dealers don't even pull the axels. I know what the book says, but mine was done at 35,000. No axels pulled. Marked nut, removed, removed yoke, new seal, put yoke back on ran nut back to previous spout and went a few more foot lbs. Been over 60,000 miles since. No problems. Oh, and that was the dealer that done it that way as I stood there and watched.

I did a friends the same way and he is over 50,000 since the new seal.

I was told by the dealer techs to use a breaker bar, and put it on "fairly tight" with it. They said they would rather have it a little loose, than too tight and crush the sleeve more.

My front leaks a little. Do I trust the dealer to do it correctly? NO. I would tale them two days to check the air in the tires and would still do it wrong. Mine only started to barely leak after putting in syn oil. I herd it can leak more. Might change back to non syn in the front and see what happens.

Mine started as a slow leak. After six months it was pretty bad, so I decided to change it.

My dealer did mine under warranty.

dana 60 ,70 ,80s DO NOT HAVE CRUSH SLEVES
I hate to say this but Yall are showing your ignorance

Yeah, but an 04.5, like the one in question, doesn't have a Dana axle.

yep, nobody said Dana. Those have been gone from the trucks.
Ignorance??:o

I can guarantee most shops including dealers do it this way, it may not be right but this is how it will be done.

It's funny how differently truck parts can wear, I use my truck seemingly the same as upjeeper, have 110k on it, and my yokes and seals are fine, but I just got done with the front axle u-joints. I had an '04 2500 w/ a Hemi for a while and had the same experience w/it with only 70k. and my '01 I sold last year never had a problem on either axle and it had 200k on it.

Is the seal installed dry or with some lube on the lip? Tech told me these seals are teflon and should be installed dry. All previous installed seal I have put in were put in with grease on the lip.

sorry guys YES ignorance

I just changed my rear pinion seal with every intention of doing it "by the book". I pulled the axles and tried to measure the torque to rotate but it was way below the range of both my 1/4" torque wrench and an electronic torque gauge I have. So all the "measurement" was by feel.

If you don't mind shifting the axles in and out a few times, setting the parking brake does a good job of holding the pinion shaft while you remove and replace the pinion nut.

First of all, you will need a 36 mm socket, but not just any old 36 mm, it has to be a 12 point socket. If it is the first time off, it will still be at crush sleeve crushing torque, so brace yourself against something firm and get a long breaker bar.

The old seal came out and the new one went in very cleanly.

I used the original pinion nut and stopped tightening when I got up to 100 ft-lb. It was pretty hard to say whether the torque to rotate was detectably more than with the original seal, but the way I see it as long as it is tight enough to take up all movement, but not tight enough to crush the sleeve any further, there shouldn't be a problem.

I gave in and had a dealer do my front seal under warranty. I ran it a few miles to see if the diff was OK then put in the Dynatrac hub kit. All done forever.

ANY HELP also what is the torque on the diff. cover bolts?

Looks to me like this method is way easier than the way it says to do it in the service manual. Also seems like those who have had it done by the dealer, have got this method NOT the one in the service manual. Mine is leaking, I guess I will do it this way.

Someone mentioned they felt that synthetics diff oil leaks. Mine happens to be synthetic oil, could there be anything to that? Trying to decide what to put back in.

They're all synthetic fill from the factory, and I'd strongly recommend you stick with synthetic. As far as synthetic leaking more than conventional, I think that's a wives tale that may have been true in the 70's when conventional oil lasted 30K miles before it turned back into dinosaur bones, but oil formulations have come a long way, and gear lube is still pretty darn thick. I don't believe it's an accurate assessment any longer...

As far as refill, I just swapped to Amsoil because it was available, but I've previously run the Schaeffer's 293 w/moly and everything looks as clean and pretty as it was new...

yoke Shaft has a deep groove, from sand at glamis I am sure.

Looks like there is not a speedi sleeve for this size. The OD of the shaft is 2.110 in.

http://vsm.skf.com/en-US/HeavyDuty/K...eb_secure.ashx

I got a new yoke $133 account discount and taxed.

I really don't like the idea of putting a new yoke in, since I took the short cut of marking the shaft and nut and counting how many turns of the nut method, but really my only good option at this point.