anyone have a picture or two of your home made tool used to hold the pinion yolk while you torque the nut to spec ?
i'm changing to a 1350 yolk on an 8 3/4, and want something more accurate to torque the nut other than an impact gun.
a big TIA !

One I first saw as a teenager that I now own in the article at https://www.hamtramck-historical.com/NostalgiaAndOldCars.shtml

A large pipe wrench works to hold the yoke.

Search Ebay or Amazon.

I make those tools as well as a bunch of other tools for working on Mopars.
https://arengineering.com/home-page/tools

I have one that looks like yours in the middle there. Think I bought it off Mancini's (?) website many years ago.

Used one some time back that was basically a big, flat box-end wrench.
Box captured the diff yoke, lever was maybe 30" or so, and contacted the car's floor when tightening the nut.
Idiot-proof by my rating, since I used it successfully on my Dana 60.

I made one that bolts on now, but have always used a large pipe wrench as mentioned above also.

My 35 year old 110 electric Makita is ALL I’ve ever used, never once has a nut backed off (a little red loctite helps too)

Could be. I've been selling parts to Mancini for more than 20 years.

This was a short piece of left-over roll bar tubing with a piece of 1/4" plate, clearanced rectangle around the companion (pinion yoke); works quite well!

that is what I use.
MoparX which third member are you working on?
If it is a "489" case then you need to know how much rotational torque it has both ways now before you loosen the nut up so you can tighten it back up enough to have 1 to 5 inch lbs. MORE rotational torque when your done

Beautiful, except the OP was asking how you hold the yoke when you are torquing the pinion nut. I hope you aren't using that same Makita for that.

working on a 741 case that is still in the car Cab.
i'm not a fan of using a pipe wrench due to the possibility of the teeth marking up the yoke.
i had thought about making a tool like the several that have been shown. i'll probably do just that, although as i get older, i find there is no such thing as a 5 minute [or 5 hour for that matter] job.

Mine is more simple. I’ve got a 3’ piece of heavy 2.5” angle iron with holes drilled to match the cap bolts and a enough clearance torched out of the center to work the nut.

Done many with a 36" pipe wrench, don't ever remember " marking up a yoke". The pipe wrench doesn't have to be "killer tight" on the yoke. I remember doing a few rear end jobs before this, but I've done more of them since I've also gotten my 2 post lift... Thousands of times easier that way.that plus getting my son to come over and "man" the pipe wrench and cheater pipe while I tighten the yoke nut

J-8514-11 Kent Moore. Couple of them on ebay right now. Probably find them at swap meets as well.

Holding tool I made with some metal I had laying around.

I wish that had those skills, but I don't

I've had several different year FSM, some of them call for 120 Ft. lbs. torque on the 8 3/4 pinion nuts and some of them called for 150 Ft. lbs.torque when tightening those nuts. I end up using about a six-foot-long cheater pipe that will slide over my 1/2 drive clicker torque wrenches and then have someone hold the third member still while I torque that nut

I use my hand to hold the yoke, take a hammer and hit a nail hard, the nail drives into the wood, now a slow tap on the nail, no move. The Makita works on same principal as the fast swinging hammer! It’s called FORCE, kinetic energy