My (non lsd) atlas was making a serious whine so I removed it and took to a local garage where we discovered very quickly that the pinion nut was hanging on by a half turn... The guy went to town with a socket and levering bar to tighten it up.
This was a few months ago and since then the car comes to a stop as if the rear drums are sticking, they aren't.
I know very little bout axles but the drivers side wheel is now hard to turn. Any advice on this would be good as I dont wanna have to buy a new axle!
Ta

if he just tightened it up, i'd get it stripped and rebuilt with new bearings etc myself. loosening and retightening the pinion nut will affect the backlash setting, theres crush spacers and stuff in there that will have been affected. i can't think that tightening it up will have caused the wheel to tighten up, but incorrectly set backlash can increase wear on the pinion and crownwheel.
i'd go to a transmission specialist myself. in fact, i did

The pinion nut has a crush washer inside and has to be toqued to a specific torque. When removing and refitting the nut you need to make sure that you do not over tighten it or the preload will be upset. It sounds as if this may be the problem. Depending how long it has been driven like this it may need a rebuild or change out. Have a look in a workshop manual for your car it will give more detail.

Well it has defo been over tightened.... with a 3 foot extension bar.
Regarding back lash and preload should there be a few degrees of slack on each wheel before the prop starts to turn?

there should be a bit, not sure how much though. (think mines only about 2 degrees on the wheels with both wheels on the ground at the most) too much can cause excessive wear, too little can cause the same.
i'd get it checked over proper. over tightening should mean too much back lash
i modifed my atlas lots, re-tubes, quaife half shafts, full floating axle with gp4 ends. think it was about £200 by a guy local to me to rebuild the diff, new bearings, re set the backlash, and have the shafts cut to size, a set of bearings will cost about £100 i think.
so you could get it rebuild knowing its been done properly, or buy a new one, not knowing if its good or not.

[Edited on 6/7/11 by blakep82]

guys you need to think it through logically.

(1) If the drivers side only is sticking it must be brakes as if it was anything to do with the crown wheel and pinion both half-shafts would be affected.


(2) However the OP needs to get the final drive overhauled and setup or you will end with a major axle blow up which can instantly ock the rear end solid and cause a major accident.

[Edited on 7/7/11 by britishtrident]

quote:

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Originally posted by Craigorypeck
Well it has defo been over tightened.... with a 3 foot extension bar.
Regarding back lash and preload should there be a few degrees of slack on each wheel before the prop starts to turn?

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Over tightening the pinion nut won't effect the back lash of the cwp, but it will effect the pre-load of the pinion bearings and if it's too tight the bearings will fail prematurely (and get hot before they do).

Ian

quote:

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Originally posted by Oddified
Over tightening the pinion nut won't effect the back lash of the cwp, but it will effect the pre-load of the pinion bearings and if it's too tight the bearings will fail prematurely (and get hot before they do).

Ian

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The shims on the pinion and diff bearings set the back lash and cwp contact patch, the crush spacer is used to set the bearing pre-load on the pinion.

Ian