PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post

Squiggle Dog · #3 05-25-2019, 04:59 PM

In most cases the yoke slides right off by hand. If it happens to be rusted on, I imagine it would only take a blow or two on the back of the yoke with a hammer. BEFORE you remove the yoke nut, remove the rear wheels and make sure the brakes aren't dragging, then take a lb-in beam style torque wrench and put it on the yoke nut and turn it clockwise slowly and steadily and write it down the amount of force it takes to rotate it. When you install the nut back on, you'll want to tighten it down until there is the same amount of resistance read when turning the yoke nut.

Unfortunately, if the bearings have worn (which is likely), then they are probably too loose right now, and when tightening the yoke nut so the yoke has the same amount of turning resistance as there is now, the bearings will likely also be too lose again. But, the problem is there is no way of knowing if your yoke bearings were too loose before without removing the axle shafts, so all you are doing is setting the friction to what it was before, even if it was too little.

When I replaced my pinion yoke seal, I did it with the axle shafts removed. The manual wants you to do it with the internal gear set removed as well and to set the friction between 50-100ncm for used bearings, but I found that the gear set only adds about 25ncm of friction to the whole unit, so setting the bearing friction between 75-100ncm with the gear set installed should be fine.

In my case I found that my pinion bearings had no preload on them at all, so I'm glad I had the differential removed, because I would have had no way of knowing this otherwise.

I got this Performance Tool lb-in torque wrench at AutoZone for $25. The Massive flange too was useful for holding the yoke when cranking down the yoke nut, which requires a lot of force.

Be aware that the yoke's seal surface can wear a groove into it which can cause leaks, even with a new seal.