Whitebelt Pinion Question

[Swank]

Afternoon,
   I had the back end out from under the car a while back de-greasing, cutting out rusted brake lines, etc etc.  Ended up replacing the big flat pinion/yoke seal and that rubber o-ring type seal around the pinion retainer.
  Had to pull the yoke off the pinion splines to replace the big flat seal.  Pretty sure I put everything back correctly per the manual, but since I did all of this before yesterday,  I'm second guessing myself.   Mostly that pinion pre-load part.
  Of course, everything is currently back together at this point.
Pulled the back wheels and brake drums off today and disconnected the drive shaft.   Im getting 8-10 in/lbs (with a beam style torque) on the nut.  This is pulling against the ring gears and axles (everything turns).  I'm thinking this 8-10 in/lbs should only be against the pinion bearings (not attached to anything else) and that theres not enough pre-load.  The yoke does not have any play at all, at least not by hand. 

Am I off on the preload?  ....and if so, is there a basic specification for correcting this without pulling everything out of the diff?

The book says nothing of new crush sleeves or spacers needed while replacing the seal, unless you pass the 8-12 in/lbs torque limit on the nut.

[Tom S]

... I'm thinking this 8-10 in/lbs should only be against the pinion bearings (not attached to anything else) ...

I'm thinkin' you're right. It's real easy to pull the axles. Come to think of it unless you drained it you were pulling against the resistance of some cold gear lube too. : (

[SkylinerRon]

How much retorque on the pinnion nut?  I've changed yokes before but, it can be a problem if you don't get the correct preload.

Good luck,

Ron.

[Swank]

I pulled the pinion part out of the housing.   It only had 2 in/lb of resistance turning the yoke.  Nut was already pretty tight.  The book only said to tighten until there was 8-12 in/lbs in rotation.   Ended up fashioning a yoke bracket out of some 1/4" flat bar and used a pipe on a breakerbar on the nut.   Turned the nut about a 1/16th to 1/8th of an inch at a time and rechecked inbetween.  Stopped when it was hovering around 10 in/lbs.  Dont know what the tightening torque ended up being, but it was a good bit.
Put it back together, all the teeth still looked good.  It might be my imagination but it feels like the car is a little less "rattley".