Easiest way to remove yoke from rear-end?

[Audiowizard]

I am swapping rear-ends into my GN (rebuilt 3.42 for my wore out 3.42) and the bolt hole threads in the yoke that I am putting in seem to be buggered up and I just want to swap yokes. Both rears are both out of the car and need to know the best way to remove them with out busting up my knuckles. Any help/advice would greatly be appreciated, thanks!

 

[Audiowizard]

I may try running a tap through it as a last resort but I would like to utilize the yoke with undamaged threads, thanks! TTT

 

[S10xGN]

IIRC, pulling the yoke off will relax the preload on your pinion gear. Then when when you put the (new) yoke back on, your clearances will likely be off. This might or might not destroy the rear axle! If it were me, I'd rethread the holes...

 

[TurboJim]

Originally posted by S10xGN
IIRC, pulling the yoke off will relax the preload on your pinion gear. Then when when you put the (new) yoke back on, your clearances will likely be off. This might or might not destroy the rear axle! If it were me, I'd rethread the holes...

Well, yes you are technically right Russ, with the carrier in there theres no way to verify pinion preload. However, if you observe the minimum torque for preload (tytpically somewhere around 120#, to load the bearing without crushing the collar you will probably be OK. If you go over that and by chance crush the collar, preload will be wrong and wipe the bearings quick.

Dont misunderstand. The RIGHT way is to pull the carrier and torque the nut to spec, while observiing preload. If you hit torque and preload is too much, the crush collar needs to be replaced. Then to re-crush it will take 300-400# to crush the collar. It will be really hard with the rear on the ground. In the car I hook up a bar and chock it to the floor of the car. My tool is bent pretty good and the part holding the yoke is 1/4" plate. Just to give you an idea how much torque you have to apply. You will *probably* be just fine by tightening to the min torque though. Its not the CORRECT way, but will most likely be fine. DO NOT use an impact gun to put it on!!!!

Another word of advice, use a new nut. Once you pull the locknut off, dont trust it to hold torque...even with loctite. Been there, smoked a Dodge rear that way

 

[Audiowizard]

Thanks Russ and Jim! After reading your posts, it made more sense to run the tap through the holes and be done (not wanting to screw-up the preload) ! All 4 holes cleaned up nicely and the rear end is in the car complete waiting for me to bleed the brakes and take it for a spin in the A.M. Thanks for replying and thanks for your advice, I will be ready for this summers shows and cruises!