Ford 9" Pinion Seal leaking

[85pig]

I have one of the sleeves arriving today myself.  My only concern is I'm swapping from an 8.8" to a 9", and I've read that there may be some overall length difference, and the 9" may need a longer (?) yoke. Hate to sleeve it, and then need to replace it anyway.

That pitting is crazy.  

[viven44]

I don't believe the Yoke for a 8.8 would work on a 9 because of the spline count differences. 8.8 looks to be 30 spline and 9 looks to be 28 spline. I am speaking of them in stock form, but maybe you have addressed that part already.

[85pig]

No - I'd have to use a longer 9" yoke.  From what I've read, I might need one as the 8.8 is longer (fore and aft) than the 9", so I might come up a little short, or visa-versa, using my current yoke.  I'll be researching more.  

[viven44]

Even the 9" had a 28 spline and 31 spline. They switched to 31 spline from 79' supposedly.. and that was also based on pickup vs bronco.

[viven44]

Installed new yoke sleeve and seal. Got pinion nut back to where it was and then just a hair more. Measured preload is a bit higher due to seal drag.

No more leaks at the moment !

Used permatex #2 to install the sleeve

The only concern I have is that the seal now rides flush with the flange of the sleeve. You can see the sleeve flange in that pic. Hoping that isn’t an issue that will wear out the seal fast.

[mat in tn]

looks good. the seal lip that you can see here is the dirt/dust cover to keep the inner seal clean. the actual oil seal is the lip on the inside. that should be well onto the smooth sleeve.

[viven44]

Right on!! that makes sense.

[viven44]

Just got done adjusting the backlash. For some reason it was at 35000!!!! Brought it back down to 12000, checked it all around

Pre backlash adjustment the gear pattern was pushed out all the way to the outside of the ring gear (it was in the center of the ring gear tooth, but the contact area between ring and pinion was small... almost barely riding and thats why the slapping noise)

The gear pattern looks a little better after the backlash adjustment. The drive side looks good, I am unable to see a pattern on the coast side, it’s almost like it rides the entire way evenly

[AmericanSavage]

viven44 wrote

I just ordered the sleeve on Amazon as it will get here pretty quickly.. Rockauto's shipping usually kills it for me.

I agree that Yoke is priced well.

It's amazing metal can be pitted like that from friction/heat.

The previous owner (kid) went mudding a couple of times. I am sure the seal took a beating then.

I used speedi sleeves on my front end work (though not the rear end specifically like you here) and they have worked fabulous.  I heated up the sleeve before pressing it on, and added a little loctite to the thing being sleeved for insurance.  

[viven44]

Yes I had the same experience, that it worked really well.

In my case they sent an implement to pound the sleeve in so I didn't need any heating of it. I use some permatex#2 and installed it.

[ArdWrknTrk]

I'm patterning my 10.25 right now.
I have 0.008 backlash and what appears to be good pattern on drive and. back drive sides.
Going to try to drive it and see how hot it gets...

[viven44]

That seems like a good test. I haven't considered that.

Point and shoot with a thermometer at the pumpkin ? I need to do the same. I guess 200F is the max I'm supposed to see ? Wish I had checked that before tearing into mine

After I dropped the backlash back to spec on mine, it drives well. The clunking has reduced definitely.

[Gary Lewis]

ArdWrknTrk wrote

I'm patterning my 10.25 right now.
I have 0.008 backlash and what appears to be good pattern on drive and. back drive sides.
Going to try to drive it and see how hot it gets...