HP Dana 30 Gear Pattern Check
- Thread starter CupOfJoe190
- Start date
Yeah; a tiny bit of in/out movement. Def wasn’t there a few hundred miles ago at the break in oil change
Being that it's a Dana 44 that uses shims instead of a crush sleeve, asking with the fact that you have experience now, I would pull it apart and see. Pull the carrier and before pulling the pinion, rotate it and mess with it to see if you can see anything.
Things to think about include one of the races possibly wasn't seated all the way. Maybe one of the pinion pre-load shims split and came out (I have seen that before). Maybe you have a defective bearing that is falling apart.
Whatever it is, you won't know until you go look. Keep us in the loop as I'm curious as well.
Will do; I’ve got axle shafts out and the diff cover open tonight; I’ll have to wait till tomorrow to yank the carrier and start trying to figure out what’s up. But I’m at least relieved that the teeth on the ring gear are all 100% fine; and what I can see of the pinion peeking through looks fine. No metal chunks in the drain pan
Ok... here we go;
Everything looks.... fine.
I really dont get it, the bearings and races are all clear and clean and look fine. The wear pattern looks fine. The only thing I can possibly think of is that one of the races must have not have been fully seated, but even thats hard to believe, I really drove them in there with some extra love to be sure.
Ring Gears:
Pinion:
Assembly as installed; am i missing something here?
Everything looks.... fine.
I really dont get it, the bearings and races are all clear and clean and look fine. The wear pattern looks fine. The only thing I can possibly think of is that one of the races must have not have been fully seated, but even thats hard to believe, I really drove them in there with some extra love to be sure.
Ring Gears:
Pinion:
Assembly as installed; am i missing something here?
Pending feedback, I cant help but guess the pinion bearing race closest to the yoke must have not been fully seated; as my pattern didnt change between the setup race and the final race on the bearing closest to the ring gear; and if that race hadn't been driven to the right depth it would've caused a massive pattern change.
Am I off base here that the best move is going to be reset my pinion preload and adjust shims; replace the pinion nut and rear seal, and button it back up? Everything seems totally fine; no metal chunks or missing metal from anything, bearings are all smooth and turn freely, races are all clean without scarring
Am I off base here that the best move is going to be reset my pinion preload and adjust shims; replace the pinion nut and rear seal, and button it back up? Everything seems totally fine; no metal chunks or missing metal from anything, bearings are all smooth and turn freely, races are all clean without scarring
When installing the races, I hammer them in until I hear a distinct "ping" that is different from the normal sound when driving them in. You can also feel it. I would hit them again with your race driver to ensure they are seated. Use the flat side of the driver too, not the sloped part that looks like it should fit in the cup. Once you are sure they are seated, reassemble without a seal for now and check your preload. Do this with the pinion nut at the torque you plan on using for final install. If you need to adjust pinion preload shims, then do so shooting for 16-20 in/lbs. Once you have it, install your seal and you should be good to go. If you are re-using the pinion nut, be sure to use ample red loc-tite.
I wanted to follow up after a bit of a delay; it seems the post office has been running slow in my area and I just got the pinion seal and and new lock nut to button the Dana 44 back together.
I wound up removing a significant amount of shims to get the preload right; I don’t have the numbers in front of my but I think I landed on a .0340” shim; and had initially installed something closer to .0560”. I reseated both pinion races to ensure they were driven home; cleaned everything as well as I could and inspected everything as well as possible to ensure I didn’t miss anything. I took some extra time cleaning the pinion bearings to make sure I wasn’t missing any issues; and can’t see or feel anything out of the ordinary. I reinstalled; set my preload to ~25 in lbs; skewing towards the “used bearing” numbers over new bearing numbers; and took it out for a quick spin; up to 80 and everything in between through all gear ranges feels good. No noises or weird issues; so I’m hoping to call this good to go.
I wound up removing a significant amount of shims to get the preload right; I don’t have the numbers in front of my but I think I landed on a .0340” shim; and had initially installed something closer to .0560”. I reseated both pinion races to ensure they were driven home; cleaned everything as well as I could and inspected everything as well as possible to ensure I didn’t miss anything. I took some extra time cleaning the pinion bearings to make sure I wasn’t missing any issues; and can’t see or feel anything out of the ordinary. I reinstalled; set my preload to ~25 in lbs; skewing towards the “used bearing” numbers over new bearing numbers; and took it out for a quick spin; up to 80 and everything in between through all gear ranges feels good. No noises or weird issues; so I’m hoping to call this good to go.
That would line up with the theory that the race wasn't seated all the way. Glad you've figured out
