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1,261 Posts
That crush sleeve can be a real pain. When setting pinion depth, it's best to leave it out, when determining what shim is needed, then installed at final assy.
True story,
Back in the late 70s, my 1st 12 bolt rebuild, I put a set of 3.55s into my 65 Goat. When I installed a "new" crush sleeve, it requested a torque of something like 250 ft/Lbs to crush it, and set. I only weighed 165 (at the time :shake
, and I used a 3/4" 3' long torque wrench, under the lift to apply it. I was bouncing on it like a chin up bar, trying to get the torque wrench to click. After all was said and done, when I drove the car home, it clanged, and clunked and made all kinda nasty noises. I crawled under the car, grabbed the companion flange, and was able to find a ton of play in the pinion shaft. The crush sleeve never crushed.
When I explained my dilemma to my Pontiac hi-po mentor, who was much older than me, with mucho racing experience, he said he doesn't use the crush sleeve. He puts a liberal amount of blue lock-tite on the pinion nut, torques it to the required rotating torque, then dimples the the nut at the threads with a small punch, to help keep the nut tight. Swore he never had a problem.
So, I did as he recommended, and that rear lasted on the street as my DD for about 10 years. Took lots of abuse, (tri-power, and a Muncie) Lot's of full throttle powershifts. "Ahhh, the good ole days.'
So anyway, I hear there are some kinda new kits out there that's improved the crush sleeve dilemma. Most of the rears I've done after, I just re-used the old crush sleeve.
True story,
Back in the late 70s, my 1st 12 bolt rebuild, I put a set of 3.55s into my 65 Goat. When I installed a "new" crush sleeve, it requested a torque of something like 250 ft/Lbs to crush it, and set. I only weighed 165 (at the time :shake
, and I used a 3/4" 3' long torque wrench, under the lift to apply it. I was bouncing on it like a chin up bar, trying to get the torque wrench to click. After all was said and done, when I drove the car home, it clanged, and clunked and made all kinda nasty noises. I crawled under the car, grabbed the companion flange, and was able to find a ton of play in the pinion shaft. The crush sleeve never crushed.When I explained my dilemma to my Pontiac hi-po mentor, who was much older than me, with mucho racing experience, he said he doesn't use the crush sleeve. He puts a liberal amount of blue lock-tite on the pinion nut, torques it to the required rotating torque, then dimples the the nut at the threads with a small punch, to help keep the nut tight. Swore he never had a problem.
So, I did as he recommended, and that rear lasted on the street as my DD for about 10 years. Took lots of abuse, (tri-power, and a Muncie) Lot's of full throttle powershifts. "Ahhh, the good ole days.'
So anyway, I hear there are some kinda new kits out there that's improved the crush sleeve dilemma. Most of the rears I've done after, I just re-used the old crush sleeve.
