Brake Clean is fine . . . but you can't reuse the nut . . . there's a seal behind the yoke that you can replace

 

Mark the pinion nut with a chisel and mark the pinion shaft to reference where they were. This way you will get it back where it was. I reuse the nut and haven't had any problems. If you have to replace the yoke then throw all that out. Then you need to measure rotating torque before and after to set up.

 

Check the yoke to make sure there isn't a groove worn in it. You should be able to slide your finger nail across it and not fill anything. If you do it needs to be replaced along with the seal. You can reuse the nut , Just put some silicone on the back side of the nut so it wont seep any fluid past the splines. i have seen it do that a couple of times. But you will need to get a new crush sleeve, that way you won't put to much pre-load on the bearings. Brake kleen wont hurt anything I do it all the time.

 

I've cleaned the gunk out of rears with brakleen many many many times....

 

Thanks for all the good info!

 

Don't replaced that crush sleeve or you are going to need to pull it apart to set pinion bearing preload. With a new one you will have no idea where your preload is at without measuring turning torque without ring gear in there. Mark the nut and shaft and put the seal in and tighten nut back down to where marks line up and you will be fine. You can put pipe telfon on splines of yoke. If there is a groove in yoke replace it but the only way to get it back to previous preload is to remove axles measure preload before and put it back to the same.

 

I've done with a new crush sleeve and without... either way, dont over tighten the pinion nut. If you can feel that its about right, then roll with it. Its definitely a feel thing though... if not, you need to pull it apart, change the sleeve and reassemble according to the book.

 

Why would you need to pull it apart? You are already going to be replacing the seal, all you have to do is remove the outer bearing to access the crush sleeve. The crush sleeve is what sets the preload on the bearings. If you were referring to the shim behind the inner bearing that is for pinion depth, which has absolutely nothing to do with bearing preload or the pinion nut or seal.