Crush sleeve crushed with only 104 ft lbs torque?

[ryan7663]

I just replaced my 3.73's with 3.55's to get more of a first gear and make my speedo read correctly. I thought you needed at least 140 ft lbs torque to crush a new crush sleeve but I'm crushing them at 104 ft lbs? Torque wrench is a new CDI 1/2 torque wrench and am measuring 24 in lbs torque with a 1/4" beam type torque wrench. I've over-crushed 3 crush sleeves already and can't get more than 104 ft lbs torque on the pinion nut.

Is this a problem or is it all right at 104 ft lbs as long as the preload is between 16-29 in lbs? Thanks for any help on this.

 

[84Ttop]

If it drags at 20 inch pounds or so I would imagine its fine. I don't torque the linking nut per say, the impact gun does. As long as the drag is good it good imo.

 

[ratio411]

Same here.
I just hit it with the impact a bit at a time until I get the proper drag.
The drag tension seems a bigger deal to me than the exact torque of the pinion nut.

 

[TOOLOW91]

Thats what i did too , according to the book drag is between 18-20 andhit it until the sleeve crushed

 

[reldla1996]

Ditto the above three responses, I've always used an impact gun. Over did it the first time, and had to replace the crush sleeve because I overtightened it with the impact, and the inch pounds read high. Learned to go slow, and measure the inch pounds often, once the slop was gone.

 

[blacksheep-1]

Ditto on the last 4, go with the "drag" method.

 

[gearheadboy]

If you are worried about the torque, loctite the nut or stake it. Or you could just cross thread it An old mechanic once taught me, tighten it till it strips and back it off a quarter.

 

[srtthis]

What brand crush sleeve? I believe ratech makes one that has a lower crushing torque then the standard one

 

[ryan7663]

Thats what i did too , according to the book drag is between 18-20 andhit it until the sleeve crushed

Which book did you see 18-20? I've read that it's 8-14 in lbs with old bearings and 16-29 in lbs with new bearings. I have my pinion set at around 24 in lbs right now hopefully that's not too much.

 

[ryan7663]

If you are worried about the torque, loctite the nut or stake it. Or you could just cross thread it An old mechanic once taught me, tighten it till it strips and back it off a quarter.

I don't know about strippin it but staking it is a good idea that works well on the gas key in my ar15. It was a new nut for the final setup and it came with a lot of red loctite on it already. I might take a hammer and a chisel and stake it a couple times though for good measure it can't hurt.

 

[ryan7663]

What brand crush sleeve? I believe ratech makes one that has a lower crushing torque then the standard one

I had one it looks kinda funky but I over crushed it along with several other standard crush sleeves. The ratech instructions said a minimum of 125 ft lbs. and by then my pinion was locked up. I had one of ratech's solid pinion spacers too but couldn't get the right combo of shims to get the correct preload.

 

[ryan7663]

Ditto the above three responses, I've always used an impact gun. Over did it the first time, and had to replace the crush sleeve because I overtightened it with the impact, and the inch pounds read high. Learned to go slow, and measure the inch pounds often, once the slop was gone.

Yeah I went real slow with a 1/2" click-type torque wrench and moved up a ft lb at a time. Think I must've stopped and checked at least 20 times. Setting up a rear end sure does invlove a lot of measuring and tedious work

 

[ryan7663]

So basically as long as it's dragging with correct amount of preload(16-29 in lbs?) I'm fine then right? I guess it'd only really be alarming if I only got to something like 30 ft lbs. and the preload was alreay there.

 

[clement]

Which book did you see 18-20? I've read that it's 8-14 in lbs with old bearings and 16-29 in lbs with new bearings. I have my pinion set at around 24 in lbs right now hopefully that's not too much.

thats what i was thinking. the last time i freshened mine i used some old used gears and just reused my bearings. my crush collar was being such a whore i quit at 10 in/lbs of pinion drag. its quiet as a mouse and has been good to go for 2 years now and probably 200 drag strip passes.

 

[TOOLOW91]

Which book did you see 18-20? I've read that it's 8-14 in lbs with old bearings and 16-29 in lbs with new bearings. I have my pinion set at around 24 in lbs right now hopefully that's not too much.

dont quote me but i was going off an OLD ford shop manual i was going off the top of my head