four quarters worth of grease in the pinion cup...

[hubcapsc]

The manual says to put .08 oz of grease on the pinion end of the
drive shaft when reassembling... that sounds like just a tiny amount,
and I've always used "just a tiny amount"... and I've had bad luck
and a dry/worn pinion cup a couple of times. I've also had times
when I found everything in perfect shape with the pinion
end of the drive shaft  glistening with final drive fluid.

Last time I weighed the grease out... four quarters worth... that
doesn't seem like much, but it is actually quite a bit more than
just a thin coating on everything like I was doing...



This is what I found this evening...







It got to be dinner time, so I didn't get everything cleaned up, but the flange looks
OK too... there's a tiny wear line, but that's been there for at least three tires or so...



I don't think this sample size of one proves anything, but I do plan to use
four quarters worth of grease in the pinion cup on reassembly 

I also think I'm going to install one of my "refurbished" final drives, with the
splines stolen from an old 1500 wing final. Wish me luck...

-Mike

[alph]

LUCK!!


those splines look good.  i replaced a shaft and pinion cup a couple years back, the two holes on the bottom of the pinion cup were plugged with too much grease.  now when ever i change a tire i check the drive shaft and pinion cup!  plus i've got a spare of each along with a uni-joint!  can never be too prepared!!

[MP]

You mean by weight?

Wikapedia says a quarter weighs 1/80 of a pound. 

80 qtrs = 1 lb.

.08 oz per qtr = 200 qtrs / lb.

[hubcapsc]

You mean by weight?

Wikapedia says a quarter weighs 1/80 of a pound. 

80 qtrs = 1 lb.

.08 oz per qtr = 200 qtrs / lb.

Sorry... I was clearer when I posted about "four quarters worth" previously...

I weighed the grease with a borrowed scale last year. In order to be able to
reproduce a similar amount of grease in the future, I noticed that a stack of
four quarters has a similar volume to the amount of grease I weighed. That's
what my picture is trying to show -  I weighed the grease in one of those
"zero-weight" creamer cups that the people at work adulterate their coffee with,
and drew a line on the cup.

All grease doesn't weigh the same, the little cup does actually have weight and
four quarters is just an approximation.

I was just putting a light coating of grease in the pinion cup before, and this
four-quarter-sized-dab is quite a bit more than I was using... I try to follow the
manual, but don't always have good results. This "four quarter" thing is the
result of my analysis of "what am I doing wrong?"

-Mike

[MP]

Gotcha, Mike.  Figured that might be it. 

4 qtrs by wt. would be a bunch!

MP

[Jess from VA]

I also think I'm going to install one of my "refurbished" final drives, with the
splines stolen from an old 1500 wing final. Wish me luck...

Do what you want, but I'd think when you have an assembly of rear end parts working together for you tire after tire with no problem, I would stick with that assembly as long as it lasted.  Before I did any testing of new/used parts.

Cliches>

Don't fix what ain't broke.

Curiosity killed the cat.