You do know that the pinion sets the preload and when you remove the yoke you are supposed to use a new crush sleeve and go thru the preload setup.

Anyway, without the yoke in place you will have excessive movement of the pinion. How much? Dunno never really paid attention to that.

They say there are no such thing as a stupid question.
They say there is always the exception that proves the rule.
Don't be the exception.