[GMR]

Wanted to replace a leaking pinion seal in my Ford 9 inch. Discovered the pinion nut was spot welded to the pinion. Got the nut off, but the last 3/16" of the pinion threads are not good (see the weld in the picture). So what to do:
. cut the bad part off or file it down and hope enough threads remain for pinion nut
. any chance a die would work to cut new threads
. just go right to a new ring and pinion

 

[OneMoreTime]

Die probably won't work as the welded area is hard..

filing it down and filing the threads might work but then it would be a worry to me..

Best would be to go right to a new ring and pinion..

Sorry..

Sam

 

[johnnya]

I don't see any threads. Am I missing something?
JA

 

[Henry Highrise]

Do it right...put in a new ring and pinion.

 

[xntrik]

If you have enough thread to fit a whole nut on,

then you could take the pinion assembly out and take it to a machine shop and they could lathe the thread back into it from inside out. I would guess 1.5 hours labor.

That is a whole lot cheaper than buyiing a r&p, bearings, seal, sleeve, etc and set up labor, which total would run $400. (Of course you could just use your old bearings and hope and get by for $ 325 maybe.)

When you get the pinion out, install a solid sleeve from Currie's $ 10 or so in place of the crush sleeve.

 

[boatbob2]

pinion nut and shaft

go to NAPA and buy a thread file,its square,with 8 different threads on it (4 threads on each end) you use it just like a file. i dont know how hard the pinion metal,but ive used the t. file many times. im boatbob2

 

[GMR]

Thanks fellas - good advice. I'm leaning towards the new R & P but I will think about this a bit while I investigate the options you suggested. Sorry about the iffy picture. I took it about 6 times trying to get a good display of the damage and the remaining good threads - just couldn't get the camera to cooperate.

 

[solidaxel]

If you were able to get the nut off, clean up the end so you can put a new on and set the preload and then tack it on and hope you did not get hot enough to ruin the seal!!!
Doesn't it make you wonder why it was welded in the first place?
If all that fails and you have a lot of time on your hands replace the R&P.