nooska

Took the 2004 3500 to the dealer today for a simple pinion seal replacement.

Didnt use my regular guy who can work on anything from dump trucks to cars and farm tractors, as I thought the Dodge boys would be well versed in the torquing procedures etc and it was covered by the power train warranty.


Well, I walked around for and hour or so and went back in, the service manager a bit embrassed looking says the truck will have to stay at least 4 more days and is un driveable...

I asked whats happening, they say they had to order bolts and some other parts, from what I read between the lines I think they stripped the companion flange or wrecked the yoke assembly and then had to order the parts. They also said their puller was too small....???

Just to rub salt in the wound they said they had no vehicle for us to use in the meantime, would offer a reduced rate on a rental car of about 10 bucks reduction, but they would drive us home (10) miles so we wouldnt have to walk.

Its back to the old 1995 2500 12v Cummins which is still parked in my driveway.

How should they have gone about the job without destroying my drivetrain????

Thanks

SSminnow

Screw that!! I would go out and test drive a brand new '07 and not come back until my truck was done I just do not see how they stripped out the pinion nut, never even heard of that????

gus's 03

parts required to replace pinion seal:
new pinion nut, crush sleve, and seal.
also need fresh gear oil

procedure :
remove axle shafts and drive shaft
remove rear cover , the 2 main cap bolts on each side , remove carrier.
remove pinion nut, remove yoke, if yoke is dificult to remove ether remove with puller (not recomended) or use a brass punch and drive the pinion shaft into the housing.
remove pinion seal , slide old crus sleve off pinion shaft.
apply anti seze to pinion splines, slide back into housing.
aply antisexe inside yoke splines, slide yoke on, if yoke does not seat fully, oil the old nut and use it to seat the yoke. remove old nut if used and clean threads with brake cleaner. aply red locktite to pinion threads, use new nut, tighten to aply bearing preload.
reinstall carrier, adjust back lash, put cover on, fill with gear oil. atach axles and drive shaft.
return keys to customer.

it sounds to me like an incopetent tech, and a poor service wrighter.
fill out coment card and send it to chysler with a letter, dont leave it with them it'll wind up in the trash. make sure they know what you are doing . see if they will atleast compensate you wit a free oil change, detail the truck, etc... if that doesnt work aproch the general manager/owner.

bob4x4

REMOVAL
Remove axle shafts.
Mark propeller shaft and pinion flange for installation reference and remove shaft.
Rotate pinion gear three or four times.
Measure and record the amount of torque necessary to rotate the pinion gear with an inch pound torque wrench (PINION ROTATING TORQUE).
Hold pinion flange with Flange Wrench 8979 (FLANGE WRENCH) and remove pinion flange nut and washer.
Remove pinion flange with Pinion Flange Puller 8992 (PINION FLANGE PULLER).
Remove pinion shaft seal with a pry tool or slide hammer
INSTALLATION
Install new pinion seal with Installer 8896 and Handle C-4171 (PINION SEAL INSTALLER).
Apply a light coat of teflon sealant to the pinion flange splines.
Lightly tap the pinion flange onto the pinion until a few threads are showing.
Install flange washer and new pinion nut.
Hold flange with Flange Wrench 8979 (FLANGE WRENCH) and tighten pinion nut until pinion end play is taken up.
Rotate pinion several times to seat bearings.
Measure pinion rotating torque with an inch pound torque wrench and compare it to recorded measurement.
Tighten pinion nut in small increments, until pinion rotating torque is 0.40-0.57 N·m (3-5 in. lbs.) greater than recorded measurement.
Rotate pinion several times then verify pinion rotating torque again.
Install axle shafts.
Install propeller shaft with reference marks aligned.
Check and fill differential if necessary.

gus's 03

wow quoted right from the dealors bible... and we all know they are the experts.

yep, book time might save 1/2 hour. in reality to do it right and be able to garentee no come back (comon ocurrance at the dealor), the crush sleave HAS to be replaced.

the reality of it is in a 100% perfect world, the factory procedure has less than a 50% cance of lasting.

a crush sleve is a pice of spring steel. its job is to maintain presure between the 2 pinion bearings. if this preload is lost the pinion shaft is alowed to walk around, this results in noise and eventual gear failure. the problem is a crush sleve can only be crushe once and provide corect preload. if re used you have to over crush it to attempt to get the preload to read properly on your wrench, when doing this you have gone past the desighn clearance between the bearings and are actualy mesureing bearing drag @ 0 clearance, not proper preload.
why is this bad? why is it almost garenteed to cause a failure?
because, when you operate the said bearings now with 0 clearance, you acelerate wear conciderably. you also generate more heat. as the bearings begin to wear you no longer have preload, there is no " spring " left in the crush sleve to take up the clearance. you now have slopy worn bearings and a pinion shaft that walks around as you accelerate/ decellerate. this also causes a change in back lash between the gears and the teeth meshing more twards the crown rather than the root. under heavy load the teeth break off.

any more gear questions?

oh, and since this isnt a perfect world... to get to said specs per the dealor bible, there is less tha a 10 degree window to fall within an acceptable range. if you over tighten it, guess what. tear down time... you went beond the point of no return. you wasted time doing it wrong in the first place, and now to save your @.. you get to go thru the procedure i outlined to begin with. or you let it go out the door with no pride in your workmanship and try to pass the buck and play the blame game when it comes back.

PourinDiesel

This is why I dont take my truck to the dealer for anything.
To add to that your rolling the dice taking the truck in for little stuff when worse things can happen.

If its just a small drip then I'll just fill it up here and there............

Keep the dealer away from my axles!!!