Front shaft pinion seals

99 tahoe 4x4. I just did the seals on the front drive shaft this past weekend - the front differential pinion seal and the transfer case front output shaft seal. There is already a lot of good info on the forum regarding the pinion seal job.

2 things did not go according to plan.

First: I marked the yoke nut and counted the turns to remove it (11 rotations), pulled the yoke off and replaced the pinion seal. when putting the yoke back on I could not turn the nut the full 11 turns I could only get to 10. I think I read somewhere not to put an impact wrench on this nut so I did not go any further. How much of a risk am I taking of not having the yoke tight enough on the seal?

Second: while using the oversize socket to tap on the transfer case output shaft seal I dented the metal part between the inner and outer rubber seals. Is this one of those things that happens to mechanics and they never worry about it or am I at a significant risk of having that seal give out?

I drove it about 50 miles today and there is no sign of leaking at either seal so far.

Hopefully some of you experts can give me a sense of whether or not these are significant flaws or just things that don't always go according to the haynes manual...

99 tahoe 4x4. I just did the seals on the front drive shaft this past weekend - the front differential pinion seal and the transfer case front output shaft seal. There is already a lot of good info on the forum regarding the pinion seal job.

2 things did not go according to plan.

First: I marked the yoke nut and counted the turns to remove it (11 rotations), pulled the yoke off and replaced the pinion seal. when putting the yoke back on I could not turn the nut the full 11 turns I could only get to 10. I think I read somewhere not to put an impact wrench on this nut so I did not go any further. How much of a risk am I taking of not having the yoke tight enough on the seal?

Second: while using the oversize socket to tap on the transfer case output shaft seal I dented the metal part between the inner and outer rubber seals. Is this one of those things that happens to mechanics and they never worry about it or am I at a significant risk of having that seal give out?

I drove it about 50 miles today and there is no sign of leaking at either seal so far.

Hopefully some of you experts can give me a sense of whether or not these are significant flaws or just things that don't always go according to the haynes manual...

You need to lick that calf over again.

Bent metal part on a seal is not good.

On the front rear pinion bearings needs to be set to proper prelaod end yoke it needs torqued to proper specs.
If not you can damage rear end pinion bearings and ring gear and seal by not seting preload and torqueing the nut.

http://www.differentials.com/install.html

I was afraid of that on the transfer case seal.

On the yoke nut - can I use the impact wrench on it? If so I can put it back exactly where it was.

assuming I don't use the 4wd can this wait till the weekend?

I was afraid of that on the transfer case seal.

On the yoke nut - can I use the impact wrench on it? If so I can put it back exactly where it was.

assuming I don't use the 4wd can this wait till the weekend?

Putting it back where it was is or may be close if it was right to start with.
But close only counts in hores shoes.
How do you know it was right to start with?

You can use a impact to remove and install nut but it needs torqued after running it up with air wrench
The preload on pinion bearing needs to be checked before and checked and set after seal replacement.
If not leaking and you do not use 4W or drive a lot it can wait till wekend.