Dana pinion pre-load

[1KoolBee]

So I’m doing a freshen up ( new clutches, bearings,seals) on a ‘70 Dana 60. My strategy, which has worked out great in past builds, is to reuse the same shims that came out of the D60 on reassembly . I wound up with 40 in lbs pinion preload with seal installed. FSM says 20-30. I realize manual says to check preload with no seal, but that seemed like a PITA and unnecessary. I have read that a new seal adds around 5 in lbs. So I added a couple thou to the shim stack and now I’m at 20 in lbs with seal, which means that preload without seal is about 15 in lbs. My question is has anyone run that low of pinion preload on fresh bearings successfully or do I need to pull a thousandth out of the shim stack?

 

[R413]

Sounds too low for new bearings. New bearings need to be tighter than used bearings, then they will loosen up some with miles.

 

[1KoolBee]

So I talked to a tech at Randy’s Ring & Pinion. He said that seal is good for about 5 in lbs, and confirmed that I was a bit too low for new bearings, as minimum was 17 in lbs no seal. He also stated that for maximum longevity, they shoot for the upper end of the scale on a fresh build. The original shim stack was .060 and that gave about 40 in lbs. I added .002 and I dropped to 20 in lbs. So going to .061 gave me 35 in lbs with seal, which is the top end of acceptable preload (25-35 with seal). All good. Now for axles and brakes!

 

[oldkimmer]

I do 40 inch pounds with oiled bearings and the seal in. Kim