I went to replace the pinion oil seal on my 83 245 this weekend and, after unbolting the driveshaft, realized my 24 mm socket was not big enough to loosen the nut on the pinion shaft that would let me remove the flange and get to the oil seal. I had a 1 1/4 socket, which proved too big and my metric conversion ability isn't what it used to be. Can someone help me out here?

I'm sure someone will give you the size of the pinion nut, but I want to repeat a post that might prevent you from ruining your differential...

>posted by  lucid   on  Wed Sep 8 08:28 EST 2004<
>(Pinion Seal-Potential Problems)<

"You may be headed for trouble if you don't know which rear axle you have. I believe an axle was introduced sometime in '83 or '84 that uses a "one time" crush washer to set the Pinion Bearing pre-load, and the final Flange Nut torque is extremely LOW (about 1.5 lb ft).

See if the 700/900 FAQ has some info on this. If not, try to find the axle number (on the left side rear), i.e., 1216 nnn and post back. I may be able to help."

If you've already turned the nut, forget it. The procedure involves some punch-marking and measuring.

My Haynes manual mentioned something about the preload and so I hadn't loosened anything (couldn't do so without the socket). Thanks for the information though, I'll see if I can remove some of the gunk and find the label.