Dana 35 to Dana 44 swap

Jeepster11

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Nashville TN
I've decided its time to swap my dana 35 axle now that I have swapped out my puny 4 banger for a magnum V8 5.9L https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/97-tj-with-a-manual-heart-of-a-5-9l-magnum.56182/. I found a 2003 Rubicon that is a rust bucket, nickname Rusticon. The plan is to remove the D44s from Rusticon and put on my 1997 Wrangler.

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The undercarriage of Rusticon was pretty bad but the brunt of the damage was to the torque boxes. They are almost completely gone. The axles are rusty but not that bad. The worst spot that I've seen so far is the passenger side sway bar bracket. After pounding off all the rust there is a hole in between the bolt holes. The PO hacked up the yoke a bit by not extracting a bolt from the yoke and welding the u-joint strap to the yoke. They also put a small weld to hold the pinion nut to the pinion. I'm a little nervous why they did this. I took a grinder to the weld and tried to take off as little pinion threads as I could. I really don't want to dig into the Dana 44 internals.

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First, great freaking work.

Second, WTF?? I’m amazed at what somebody would do, those freaking welds….just cracks me up.

I’m curious, what did you do on the outside of the axle? Sandblast? Flap wheel?

What paint did you use? Did you prime, paint, etc?


I swapped 2005 Rubicon axles into my 05 X just this past fall. Assuming they have the lockers, pumps, whole setup?

On the Yoke, if it didn’t end up hurting the pinion, it’s a good result if you switch it to a 1310 yoke, that’s way you have 1310 throughout. I have to have a 1310/1330 combo u joint for now, so I have to carry a spare of those and 1310.
 
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I'd pull that diff cover just to take a look at things if I were you.

Also be aware that the Rubicon lockers may not hold up to power of the V-8 so you may be swapping out at least the rear locker before too long.

Are you going add your engine swap & build of the Jeep here too?
 
First, great freaking work.

Second, WTF?? I’m amazed at what somebody would do, those freaking welds….just cracks me up.

I’m curious, what did you do on the outside of the axle? Sandblast? Flap wheel?

What paint did you use? Did you prime, paint, etc?


I swapped 2005 Rubicon axles into my 05 X just this past fall. Assuming they have the lockers, pumps, whole setup?

On the Yoke, if it didn’t end up hurting the pinion, it’s a good result if you switch it to a 1310 yoke, that’s way you have 1310 throughout. I have to have a 1310/1330 combo u joint for now, so I have to carry a spare of those and 1310.

I hit all the rust with a braided wire cup wheel which worked great. For the crevices I used a wire brush. Took about 3 hours for one axle. After that I cleaned it with engine degreaser then soap and water. I primed it using rustoleum self-etching primer and painted it with rustoleum professional.
 
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I'd pull that diff cover just to take a look at things if I were you.

Also be aware that the Rubicon lockers may not hold up to power of the V-8 so you may be swapping out at least the rear locker before too long.

Are you going add your engine swap & build of the Jeep here too?

I pulled the diff cover off. Oil looked terrible. Based on my limited knowledge of diffs, the ring gears seemed to be in great shape. The inlet elbow for the air hose was rusted over and it looked like the hose had come off a long time ago. I've already received a Mopar elbow to replace the current one. From what I understand I should be able to pull the inner hose away from the elbow then pull the elbow out of the pumpkin and just push the new one in and reconnect the outer and inner hose. I will inspect the inner hose because water/dirt may have worked its way in the elbow since there was no hose connected.

@Wildman what else would you suggest I look at in the diff to do a good inspection?

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I pulled the diff cover off. Oil looked terrible. Based on my limited knowledge of diffs, the ring gears seemed to be in great shape. The inlet elbow for the air hose was rusted over and it looked like the hose had come off a long time ago. I've already received a Mopar elbow to replace the current one. From what I understand I should be able to pull the inner hose away from the elbow then pull the elbow out of the pumpkin and just push the new one in and reconnect the outer and inner hose. I will inspect the inner hose because water/dirt may have worked its way in the elbow since there was no hose connected.

@Wildman what else would you suggest I look at in the diff to do a good inspection?

View attachment 395917

Looks like something had come loose to make those marks on the housing which maybe why they welded the pinion nut on.

I'd do a really close inspection of the teeth on the ring gear and then look at the pinion gear teeth also.

Did you take a preload reading before your pulled the pinon nut? You need a inch lb bar type or dial indicator torque wrench to do this with.
 
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Why? The marks are just on the housing. As long as there isn't any damage to the teeth on the ring or pinion gear what would be the problem?
Since the pinion nut is already off, he should disassemble the housing and pull the pinion for an inspection.

If it was my jeep, factoring in all the crap that has been posted but specifically the welded nut and marks on the carrier, I would install new gears.

I would not take any chances on a pinion failure with these signs of neglect and negligence.

I've done my own gears and follow a gearing FB page, I would not trust those gears to make it.
 
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Since the pinion nut is already off, he should disassemble the housing and pull the pinion for an inspection.

OK if it was someone who has more knowledge on gearing I might agree but the OP's comment that he isn't very knowledgeable about gearing or differentials says to me that he should inspect them as well as he can and then go from there.

If it was my jeep, factoring in all the crap that has been posted but specifically the welded nut and marks on the carrier, I would install new gears.

We each have to do what we're comfortable with. IMO if they looked OK I'd run them.

I would not take any chances on a pinion failure.

What kind of pinion failure are you expecting? I've destroyed a few gear sets and rarely see a pinion failure just by itself.

I've done my own gears and follow a gearing FB page, I would not trust those gears to make it.

Great so have I. I use to be the gear setup guy at a few garages too. And yep I'm on a few gearing pages on FB too.
 
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OK if it was someone who has more knowledge on gearing I might agree but the OP's comment that he isn't very knowledgeable about gearing or differentials says to me that he should inspect them as well as he can and then go from there.
We agreed, maybe you didn't read what I wrote correctly.

And to add, the pinion nut needs to be put back on with the correct type of torque wrench, and the backlash needs to be set, but unfortunately now can't be set correctly since the nut is off and I doubt was checked first, increasing the chances of gear noise.

But you knew all that, right?
We each have to do what we're comfortable with. IMO if they looked OK I'd run them.
This is advice for the OP, not you.
What kind of pinion failure are you expecting? I've destroyed a few gear sets and rarely see a pinion failure just by itself.
Expect the worst with neglected parts.
 
We agreed, maybe you didn't read what I wrote correctly.

I think I'd read your comment correctly.

And to add, the pinion nut needs to be put back on with the correct type of torque wrench, and the backlash needs to be set, but unfortunately now can't be set correctly since the nut is off and I doubt was checked first, increasing the chances of gear noise.

I did ask this question. He may end up needing to take the axle to a shop & since it's out of the rig it's that much easier.

But you knew all that, right?

Pretty sure I did.

This is advice for the OP, not you.

This is for the OP

Expect the worst with neglected parts.

I try to be optimistic. I've cleaned up some pretty sketchy looking gear teeth and ran them.


Ahhhh, it’s a Magnum, Rick - he’ll be fine…

😃

(Sorry, couldn’t resist)

Now now be NICE... If it was an LS we know he'd be OK. That 5.9 has got some torque.
 
While I agree that it needs to be inspected good I don't agree with the suggestion to just replace the gears.



And yes the proper tools are needed to reinstall the pinion nut.
 
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Then I need educated on installing pinion nut. I have a torque wrench but am unfamiliar on this special tool you guys speak of. The pinion gears do have very slight rub marks on the tip. So it does look like the pinion slipped away from the yoke and made contact with the internals. Ill do some research but would appreciate any feedback on how to make sure I'm I'm doing this right the first time. Really don't want to take to a gear shop but will if I need to.

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These guys know this stuff far better than me, but from another that’s never built their own gears, look up on YouTube how to change the Pinion Seal, it captures what you’ll need to do, I attached a good one below.

The type of torque wrench they are referencing, is one that doesn’t click or buzz. You put it on the pinion nut, NOT to tighten the nut, but once you have it tight, and turn the pinion, and the gears etc. the inch pound torque wrench has a metal bar that pushed back in a measurement window, and it will show that it takes 20 inch pounds (example) to turn the nut.

Usually, you do this before, then take it off, so you can bring it back to the same inch pounds. There is a range in rhe Service Manual on this site.

I don’t know every year, but there is a seal and crush sleeve (on some, I don’t know all years )

These inch pound constant pressure torque wrenches are commonly used building firearms, was the reason I knew what these guys were talking about when I first came across this topic couple years ago on here.

The actual pinion nut, you don’t really have a Foot Pound target. You get it tight, then measure the turning inch pounds, and tighten to that spec, if that makes sense.


 
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Cpwolf covered it fairly well.

These are the two types of torque wrenches that can be used to measure pinion preload.

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Bar type

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Dial indicator

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The type you can't use is a click style.

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Pull up the FSM for the Rubicon and read the directions on replacing the pinion seal as it will cover the proper procedure.

It's been too long since I've done a Rubicon axle for me to comment on the proper way to do it.


Edit: I would recommend that you install a new seal since you have the yoke off. And while some disagree I'd install a U-bolt style yoke instead of the strap style yoke.

The video @cpwolf linked is a Dana 35 rear axle & while similar here is a Dana 44 rear axle pinion seal replacement video.

 
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