my 91Rs suddenly developed a leak at the rear pinion that is suprisingly heavy. The entire rear axle, shocks and a portion of the muffler are getting hit with flying gear oil.

It's a $6 seal at Rock Auto. FSM shows the process of taking the whole axle apart. But obviously I think i can get by with jsut taking the driveshaft off and removing the yoke to get access to the seal.

I tried searching "pinion" but only got dozens of threads with "opinion" in the title. Figures.

Anyone done one of these before? It's too cold and too little time to swap over to an LSD. i just need to fix the seal.

Any suggestions on working around the special tool to hold the yoke in palce with 2 bolts?

If you've done one and can offer advice, I'd appreciate it. i'm assuming this is about a 2-3hr job if all goes OK.

Jim

I'm getting ready to try it on my Ram 50 as I got a leak the is soaking everything in site. If I get to it before you do I'll let ya know

I've done 2. On one, I used a monster aluminum pipe wrench, rented from the tool store, on the companion flange itself, on the outer diameter. On the other, I used a piece of 1/4"x2" steel bar with drilled holes and ground out pinion nut socket relief, long enough with a pipe cheater to reach the frame rail as a stop. Both were a pita, as the nut is at forty zillion foot lbs.

Locking nut is single use, but I locktited the old one back on.

Yeah I noticed the torque in the FSM ... IIRC something like 137-160ft.lbs.

But I dont recall the "N" designation for a one-time use part.

I'll look again later.