So we've been struggling to get the crush collar on my differential to crush. I'm using angle iron bolted to the pinion to stop it from spinning. First we bent a 1 inch angle iron piece. Then we tried square tubing, and it bent as well. Got a larger piece of angle iron, and then the socket we were using cracked. The darn collar will not crush. Got stronger impact socket, but the walls are too thick so the socket will not fit in toe space for the pinion nut.

So my question is: Is it really necessary to use a new crush collar every time. Is it really such a bad idea to use the already crushed collar that came off the pinion in the first place? What harm would it do of the preload was still kept at the right inch-pounds? Thanks

 

I don't get it. If you have a piece of angle iron or tubing bolted to the pinion, how do you tighten the actual pinion nut?

I must be missing something.

 

Well its quite difficult with the 3" angle iron, lol. I dont have a photo but picture this. There are four bolts holding the driveshaft to the pinion flange. If you use two of the four bolts you can kind of have the angle iron off to the side and still fit a 1/2 inch extension on the socket which you put on prior to bolting the iron up.

 

Gotcha. that's exactly the way I did it. except I just put two of the bolts in most of the way and used a 3' pry bar, which was about 1' solid steel, and wedged it between the two bolts so it could only turn so far before it hit the ground then the pinion wouldn't move anymore.

and I used a big *** breakover bar with another cheater bar on it to turn the nut.

ya it was a bit of a pain. I could see how you would bend that other stuff. I was hanging on the cheater bar with my entire upper body and i'm 250

 

i'm guessing you don't have any access to an impact?

 

I'm not sure. All I know is that they tell ya you must replace the crush collar.

I'm guessing it would be a bad idea to use the old one.

go getcha some new tools!

pry bar and a big *** breakover bar with a cheater.

At least thats what I would do. Just think of it this way. The tools are free because it would have cost ya a lot more that the tools will cost if you would have to pay someone else to do the work!

 

I have an impact but it only does like 175 foot pounds and thats not cutting it. We were using a long cheater bar but there isnt much you can do when the socket breaks as a result. It has four cracks in it and unsafe at this point. The thick wall sockets I have dont fit in there. Not sure if they are real impact sockets or not as they are loaners. I know a impact socket online of this size is like $50. At that pricepoint its almost smarter to have a professional do the whole deal.