How do you check bearing preload?

[Chuckster]

I am in the middle of my 850 FD mod. and I have a question. I did a search and couldn't find the answer. After I torque the pinion nut to spec., how do you go about checking the bearing preload? There are specs given for what it should be, but what exactly do you do? Sorry if this is a dumb question....

[dbeardslee]

Chuckster - I asked the same question when I was doing mine, and the answer I got from John was:

When you say bearing housing, do you mean the pinion gear and bearing? That does not need to come out, but now that it is out, you need to remove the nut, and washer that holds the pinion to the gear, and clean and fill the holes, and lay a bead of silicone under the large washer, and retighten to a torque of 'guddentite', then reassemble the pinon to the final drive, and make sure you reuse the pinon shims if it had any in there. That is what sets the preload on the bearing.

[Chuckster]

Thanks, I saw that too. What I was confused by was a response by Maximan that said after you torque the pinion nut, check the preload and it should between X and Y foot pounds... It never said how you check it. I'm planning on torquing the pinion nut to spec and going with that, but I thought I might learn something.

[randy]

it's simple.

get an inch-pound torque wrench, apply it to the pinion nut and spin the pinion nut with the wrench to read the preload. Too much preload? - loosen the nut. Too little preload? - tighten the nut.

[Chuckster]

So that's what preload means... (Light bulb going off). Thanks, so much to learn, so little time!