I blew my pinion gear in my 9 bolt 3.45. I purchased new gears and carrier assy and have them removed. I have the pinion nut removed but can't remove pinion. Do you have to remove yoke assy? How much force should it take to remove pinion? The nut for the pinion was extremely tight(couple hundred ft. lbs) I guess. Any help would be nice, thanks.

 

Yes the nut would have been tight, under noraml circumstances.

Yes the yoke must come off. You can bonk it off from behind with a BFH and a big punch or something.

The pinion will be difficult to get out of the tail bearing; DO NOT strike the end of it directly, as you will mushroom the end of it.

You will probably want to remove the old pinion shim, mic it, and put the same shim back on your new one; tighten the new pinion nut using a new crush sleeve until you get the desired pinion bearing preload (probably around 20-25 INCH-lbs, or about 2 ft-lbs, to turn the pinion); and select the carrier shims by backlash measurement.

 

yoke would come off with some light taps from a hammer, or light force wit ha puller. use the nut on the pinion and smack it with a hammer, it should fall right out.

 

I got good at removing mine after LOTS of practice. Like everyone said, hit the yoke from behind with a big hammer. Rotate-hit-rotate-hit-rotate-hit. I almost used a steering wheel puller, but mine wasn't quite wide enough. If you have one that goes wide enough, you might be able to use it there. If I had my preference, I'd have done it that way rather than risk potentially damaging the yoke.

Only after you remove the yoke then try to get the Pinion out. Like everyone said, DO-NOT hit the end of the bolt directly with a hammer. You will mushroom it even if you try to be careful. (I was ever so careful and mine still got squished!) Be very careful even with the nut on there. You shouldn't have to hit it too hard or too many times before it pops out of the front bearing that is holding it.

Next, I'd tell you to be really careful not to let the Pinion shoot out the rear of the diff, but you said yours is already bad.

Are you also going to be replacing all the bearings? At a minimum you better make sure to inspect them very carefully. Check both the bearings and the races. You don't want to have to come back here again!

As tight as the pinion bolt was coming off? Add another 50%-100% for getting the crush collar down on it again!

Now can someone tell me how to remove the seal w/o damaging it???

 

Thanks for all the help, I removed it by tapping the yoke out, thanks!