Wow, crazy co-incidence. I also have replaced 3 pinion seals in my rear end, but tomorrow I am doing a PERMANENT fix. Last time I changed the seal, I noticed my yoke (or flange, depending what you call it), was very badly grooved, so the oil would just begin leaking out around the grooves around the seal in no time at all.

If you find out that your yoke is badly worn, good luck trying to find a used one in good shape. They are different styles in different gens of Runners, so it makes it harder to find the right one. I tried 4 different junk rear ends, on 2 of them the bolt pattern was off, but the thread spline pattern was correct, and on the other two it was vice versa!!! arrgh!!

Anyways, I have one on order from the dealer, just got the call an hour ago that it arrived. $125 Cdn for new one. It should be an investment considering I've already put in $40 worth of pinion seals so far.

red rock, the way you say it,it does not seem
that the backlash does not change. does this mean
that the pinion is pressed tight inside towards
the front? I thought the pinion would move/lossen
if the nut is removed. thanx

Are you running 4cly gears in a V6 third member. I had a problem before where the splines would bottom out andnot give enought room for proper preeload. I kept loosing seals and couldn't figure it out for months, untill the flange wobbled after it was tight. To fix I put in 2 oil slingers. However it was to late and the gears started to wear. I now run Real V6 gears.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Originally posted by 2utadud:
<strong>red rock, the way you say it,it does not seem
that the backlash does not change. does this mean
that the pinion is pressed tight inside towards
the front? I thought the pinion would move/lossen
if the nut is removed. thanx</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">No nothing changes when you remove the nut, the nut only holds on the companion flange and the nut is staked so it doen't come loose / off.

When I changed my first seal, I thought the same thing.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Originally posted by Red Rock Crawler:
<strong> </font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Originally posted by 2utadud:
<strong>red rock, the way you say it,it does not seem
that the backlash does not change. does this mean
that the pinion is pressed tight inside towards
the front? I thought the pinion would move/lossen
if the nut is removed. thanx</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">No nothing changes when you remove the nut, the nut only holds on the companion flange and the nut is staked so it doen't come loose / off.

When I changed my first seal, I thought the same thing.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">actually it does change..it messes with the way your pinion is contacting the ring gear..get it too tight and your only contacting the tips of your ring gear.too loose and your contacting back farther on the ring gear <img border="0" title="" alt="[Razz]" src="images/icons/tongue.gif" /> and if he is running a regular crush sleeve ( not the solid sleeve) he is taking a chance on crushing that little tin sleeve more

<small>[ March 12, 2003, 10:06 PM: Message edited by: Toyotafourwheeln ]</small>

Personally I have never had that problem, and changed many seals on 3 different rigs over the years.

Its not that difficult...

<img src="http://www.click-smilies.de/sammlung/grinser/grinning-smiley-042.gif" alt=" - " />