Possible Gear Install f-up 😒

[noodle9400]

So to start...I should’ve paid a shop to do my gear install. Had the parts for a while and was strap for cash. So I had someone on the side do it.

So after break in period I started noticing a noise when backing into my driveway. My driveway has a small incline so when I backed the car up, feathered the clutch and gas on the driveway to give a rocking feel, as it was backing up it would sound like the I was adding stress causing hard grinding/rubbing sound. Found out I had a leak at the rear. After break in period I decided to change the oil and check things myself. Had royal purple in there and with less than 800 miles the oil was grey. Oil was leaking at the pinion seal and cover.

My question(s) for all of you is this... if the pinion flange was installed without marking or counting threads to get previous pre-load, how can I install a new pinion seal and make the new nut is at the right pre-load? The old crush sleeve was used. If that was used and not following the original pre-load, could that cause the issues I’m heaving? If so, can that crush sleeve be replaced?


I’m not sure the flange nut was marked so the new flange nut was installed to the pre-load as original install. Also, the original crush-sleeve was used. Is it common to use the old crush-sleeve? When i goto install the new pinion seal, how