Zedn Liam The crush sleeve is to help cortrol the bearing load on the pinion bearings and stop bearing crush. All you are doing is replacing the seal, OK.
Why is the seal leaking??? Is there a bearing problem? Too much play side to side, or in and out of the pinion? Is there a groove in the rearend yoke? Does the rearend have 100 K miles on it?
The crush sleeve controls the preload of the pinion bearings to not over tighten them. It keeps the bearing plates at the correct torque but lets the rollers in the bearing have no or little load on them all the time. Too loose, per wear out of the bearings, too tight burns them out or blueing.
Some people don't beleive in the crush collars and run solid spacers, I don't. I do think you need to look at a rear support cover for the Dana 44 when done. Cap walking with high HP motors or drag racing is a problem. Jag rear is only good for about 400 hp and 450 ft of torque for normal driving. This is with a 27 spline stub shaft. If you have more power, a 30 spline setup of the carrier would be a 27% stronger setup. I run this with a locker and support cover on the rear case. 9 years and no failures yet. I did have a setup problem with a stub bearing and it seized after 3 miles.
Tighen the nut until you feel a drag. no play in the pinion. Leave it there and road test, see if you feel or hear any whining sound from the rearend. Get a rubber hose and put it on the carrier and do steady speeds of 20,30,40,50.60,70 mph and then coast down. If there is no noise change or a whining on coast down you are ok. Make sure you have the correct amount of fluid in the housing. Good luck. Ps keep asking questions, try not to overthink the answers.
