ae86 crush sleeve length

[jondee86]

The OEM crush sleeve is designed as a one time use item. The factory
say you should use a new one each time. However, if you understand the
purpose of the crush sleeve, then it is possible to re-use it under certain
circumstances. For example, there was a very good writeup somewhere
on the old Club4AG site, showing how to change a leaking pinion seal
without using a new crush tube. In that case the bearings are not changed
and so the distance apart does not change. By tightening the nut back to
exactly the place it was before, the original preload is again obtained.

But when the bearings are changed, it is likely that the bearings will be
slightly further apart, and therefore the bearings will contact the outer
race and become preloaded before the crush sleeve is loaded.



This will result in the crush tube being loose on the shaft, and the shaft
being able to float longitudinally, changing the contact patch between the
CW and pinion. Therefore when fitting new bearings you should always
use a new crush tube. The purpose of the crush tube is to act as a self-
adjusting (no shims) spacer between the inner bearing races. A solid
spacer needs to be shimmed to obtain correct preload, and that can be
a time consuming process.

Cheers... jondee86

PS: You could of course try using a shim with the old crush tube to get a
second life out of it, but for sure I never told you that