Long short of it. 1971 GS 350 Convertible. Replaced mufflers and tail pipe bumped the drivers brake hard line on the axel tube and now it leaks. & Front pinion seal leaks. I have new lines from inline tube and new seals from Rock auto. ( I bought 2 different seals just in case). Now to my questions. I think removing the rear is the right option to do the maintenance. Agree? (Y/N) If I remove the rear should I disconnect the brake hose on the rear or at the body? The hard lines 't' into the hose coupler that is part of the hose assembly which is odd to me so that is why I am asking. The pinion seal; is this something I could do? what tips and tricks should I know about? I know when it comes to pinions there are compression tolerances to consider for the flange. Tia.
I prefer to work with housing in the car.....when putting torgue to things I dont have to try to keep the housing still too.....
There was a very recent thread regarding axle seals on 8.5" rears you should definitely check out. Some good info there. Wrt the pinion seal, idk if this is the correct method, but we used to just put a small witness mark on the nut & pinion (w/a small chisel across both IIRC) and tighten the nut back to exactly where it was. I agree w/ @Bens99gtp on leaving it installed for just seals. What the color combo/options etc. on your car. I have a Burnished Cinnamon/Sandalwood top/White split bench '71 350 GS convertible (basket case) - Nicely optioned: Forced Comfort-Flo, PW, PS, PDB, P-Seat, N-25, AM-FM/rear speaker, Rallye Steering Wheel, chrome wheels, gauges/Rallye Clock (getting a tach), bumper guards, etc.
I like to work over it,not under it. Whatever is comfortable for you. The pinion seal is #2043. Before you re-install the yoke,place some white liquid thread sealer on the splines. This will help prevent oil wicking through,and sometimes,this is where it was leaking before. It’s not always the seal itself. Use red lock-tite on the pinion threads. You want 17-18 inch lbs of drag on the pinion,but you won’t be able to check that correctly with the differential and axles in it. Basically,when you are tightening the pinion nut,you will notice a substantial increase in resistance,when you take all the play out and seat against the crush sleeve. At that point stop and check. You will need to tighten the pinion nut very minimal after that point.
It may or may not be the totally correct method here. But when I'm just replacing the pinion seal.....no other issues, I measure the turning torque of the entire assembly with the drums or calipers removed so no brake drag. Then when I reassemble it try to go back to that plus a very minor amount more..... I know the crush sleeve should be replaced each time.....but most customers won't pay the amount of labor to go all the way in........don't use air tools to tighten. And as brain said once you get all the slack out of the system, gains in preload come very very very fast.........if you over crush the sleeve you will for certain be replacing it
Pulling the entire rear out to replace the pinion seal and a brake line is a waste of time. Both jobs take less than an hour, especially with prebent lines.
To hijack my own thread. Original Red, white top white interior. Before I got the car my brother changed it to black and black. See my profile picture. Minimum optioned. Bench seat. Had no radio so not sure if originally Am or Am/FM. so I got one period correct to plug the hole. It does have the nice instrument package, in dash tach etc. Since the car drives so well I've tried to enjoy it while keeping the full resto bug at bay. It needs a full floor and a full right rear quarter. Inner battery tray and core support sheet metal rotted. But she's a nice car and I'm not going for perfection its nice enough to drive around and only when parked would a trained eye recognize the traits of Bondo work.
Well, I guess I sorta started the hijacking. That's an awesome color combo. Mine came to me apart & w/a botched floor job started so not much choice. If you ever want to replace the RR quarter I have a used pair for mine & a spare RH.
Got both brake lines swapped out with the rear still under the car. Now to resolve the pinion leak. Inline tube brake lines mostly fit. The drivers side securing tab was too low on the tube near the brake drum but the other two lined up (left right inner tabs on each side of the diff). I don't know why but the passenger side only had one securing tab near diff and not a trace that a second one near the brake drum existed like on the driver's side. I guess it doesn't matter since it probably would not have lined up.
All of the 69-72 rears have 2 tabs on the left and one tab on the right. I have no idea why. Some of the mid-60’s rears just have one on each side. If it’s been seasoned with salt,it might have none.
Tab on the right is missing as it is NOT needed to hold down the brake line when it gets tightened it is force into the axle tube. The other side it is pulling up away from the tube when tightening. Jim
