Pinion Slack
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Early ('83-96) 8.8" axles are notorious for the pinion nut backing off after a few hundred thousand miles. The correct fix is to remove the nut & rinse all the threads with brake cleaner, warm them dry, apply red threadlocker, and then tighten the nut to ~180 lb-ft using a calibrated torque wrench. That should remove all slack, withOUT crushing the sleeve or changing the pinion bearing preload. Then mark the nut & pinion with a cold chisel so the condition can be monitored.

Owner caption March 2024 · Photo 0 of 5000