A shop replaced my pinion seal, and now it won't spin. The rearend was removed for the car, I'm going to sandblast it and paint it, but after the pinion seal was replaced, I found that I could not spin the yoke ( yes, both ends are off the ground, should spin? spun before this very easily) The guy used an impact wrench, undid the bolt, took a flat head against the seal, took it off, put on the new one, and used the impact wrench to put everything back together. What I need to know, if any damage could have occured? I have not put it back on the car.

 

The mechanic overtightened the pinion nut, It will cause the bearings to fail. I have seen pinion bearings freeze and spin the races in the housing, thus destroying it. You need to at least disassemble the axle and replace the crush sleeve, then tighten the nut until you feel the slack is out of the bearings and spins freely without and play.

 

LOL another impact wrench happy mechanic. There is a spec for how far the crush sleeve should be compressed, and it's specified as the amount of torque it takes to turn the pinion. You tighten and measure, until it's within spec. It's in the shop manual, dunno about Haynes or Chilton.

You might want to let that guy know that those big long ratchets with the fancy handles and numbering on them are there for a reason. If I were you I'd take it back to the shop and ask them what the hell they were thinking. Or better yet, have them do head gaskets for you or something so they can buy you a new engine after the guy takes an impact to those heads

 

Lazy mechanics...I always secure my pinions & compress the crush-sleeve the old-fashioned way- with a break-over bar, blood, sweat, and tears...and a really long cheater pipe!

 

You only need to load new bearings, not used ones. You guys are working to hard, remember work smarter not harder.