Howling after replacing pinion seal
 

I took my 97 F150 to a local auto guy to get the pinion seal relpaced, since it was leaking oil. The guy replaced it and when I drove home I started hearing a howling sound when coasting. By the time I got home it got much louder. I took my truck back to the guy this morning and the mechanic listen to it and said it sounded like the bearing was going bad. So far the guy said he would pay the cost of getting it fixed. Will see what happens.

I'm not sure what they did wrong. I talked to the guy who worked on it and he said that he recorded the torque when he took to pinion off and marked the pinion so it would go back the same way. He seemed like a good guy and sounded like he knew what he was doing.

I wanted to know if this has happened to anyone else and if so, can you tell me what the problem turned out to be? Also if anyone has any ideas on what they could have done wrong to make the bearing go out just after they replace the pinion seal?

Thanks for your comments.

To follow-up my story, the guys working on my truck replaced the bearing and the crush collar and put it back together. So far that did the job and it sounds back to normal again. He said that next time he will change the crush collar when he puts the pinion back together.

The crush collar can only be crushed once, any time the torque is released from them they should be replaced, at least that's what i've have always seen.

-Jon

thats correct ... anytime you loosen the nut on the pinion yoke , you put replace the crush collar

For referance purposes: When replacing pinion seal and crush sleeve for the first time, in the after market world, there is a rigid pinion spacer kit available (which replaces the crush sleeve).

The beauty of using the rigid spacer kit, if you ever have to replace pinion seal again--you don't have to worry about going deeper to replace the crush sleeve (saving time & money).

Rigid crush sleeve normally retails for about $22.00 (U.S.) and is usually available from Jeg's performance or Ratech (Cincinnati, OH).

Rigid pinion spacer is the same for 7.5", 8.8", 9" and 10.25" Ford Corporate differentials. 8" ford differential (like out of Maverick and some Granada) will use a different size collapsible and rigid pinion spacer.

Another benefit of the rigid pinion spacer; In an accident, sometimes the crush sleeve will collapse on sudden shock-load or impact--thus giving You another problem to repair.