Mark. The flange is indexed to the snout of the pinion so the splines are always in the same relative position. You want a preload of X inch pounds to turn the shaft after you replace the seal. To do this the quick and dirty way. You MARK the position of the large nut relative to the pinion shaft  so the same tension ( pre load) is reapplied on reassembly. USE GOOGLE YOUTUBE and watch some videos if this is still not clear. Ignore the NOISE and good intensions. Pete
PS, The final tension is 175 to 225 FOOT LBS so you have to hold the yoke while you tighten the nut. Use a fixture of some sort. After you tighten and line up the marks you made BEFORE you disassembled it. Then the torque to rotate the yoke is 8 to 10 INCH LBS

Second PS. The witness marks are one on the large nut holding the the yoke to the pinion shaft. And one on the snout of the pinion shaft to show how tight the nut was torqued at last assembly.

I'll follow your instructions to the letter Pete.  Thank you very much.


Mark

1956 Mercury M100
1955 Ford Fairlane Club Sedan
Delta, British Columbia

mark forget the marks just tighten the nut with a impact till you feel some drag,once the tube is crushed you remove the nut to inst seal you only need to be sure the nut is reasonably tight,dont need to crush the tub just snugth nut a touch past wher it was.the tube crush  is pretty crude way to pre load a bearing. but is seems to work. home  give me a call when you ar up to a coffee cliff