Odd Dana 30 Axle Shaft Length Issue

[Stinkbug]

I have an interesting situation with my Dana 30 from differential.

About a decade ago I installed some 10 Factory front axle shafts. The driver side shaft would not seat all the way. It would slide in, hit a hard stop again what ever it seats against in the differential but was still not flush with the knuckle. I heard about a “bad batch” that were a bit too long. I took an angle grinder to the shaft and lopped off 1/4” and all was well for years.

I recently swapped out the axles for a set of Revolution Gear and Axle shafts and ran into the same problem. It is extremely unlikely that these shafts were also made too long. While they seemed to install and bolt up just fine, the driver side would bind and make a pronounced click when the axle shaft was spun with the wheel facing any direction other than straight forward. I checked to see that the unjoints were not contacting the yokes and moved freely and that the brand new Timken bearing was not binding. I checked the end of the axle shaft for any indication that it was hitting on anything in the differential, there were no nicks or other damage to the splines or shaft end.

I slipped the old axle shaft back in and the problem went away. I have since trimmed the end of the new shaft to the length of my previously trimmed Tens Factory shaft and all is well.

I hopefully will have some time to crack open the differential next weekend but truly don’t know what to look for unless it is something very obvious.

I have a few question and hope you guys can shed some insights…

1. Is there anything unique about the Dana 30 that was installed in a 1997?
2. Can this be related to the Eaton E-locker. It has been I there for a long time and I can’t recall it it was installed before or after the issue appeared.
3. Maybe a bent tube?

Thoughts?

 

[GATORB8]

This may not be accurate, but I'll throw it out there.

CAD shafts (YJ) need to be trimmed for the Eaton since they are longer. The Rev shafts are compatible with both YJ and TJ. Therefore the Rev shafts may be intentionally too long to work for CAD diffs and need to be cut.

Quoting from Eaton instructions posted in another forum:
In the instructions for the E-Locker, there is a line in there that says “On some Dana 30 models it may be necessary to trim the axle shaft ends that fit into the differential approximately 1/16 to 1/8 inch to allow clearance for the 4 pinion center-block.”

 

[mrblaine]

I have an interesting situation with my Dana 30 from differential.

About a decade ago I installed some 10 Factory front axle shafts. The driver side shaft would not seat all the way. It would slide in, hit a hard stop again what ever it seats against in the differential but was still not flush with the knuckle. I heard about a “bad batch” that were a bit too long. I took an angle grinder to the shaft and lopped off 1/4” and all was well for years.

I recently swapped out the axles for a set of Revolution Gear and Axle shafts and ran into the same problem. It is extremely unlikely that these shafts were also made too long. While they seemed to install and bolt up just fine, the driver side would bind and make a pronounced click when the axle shaft was spun with the wheel facing any direction other than straight forward. I checked to see that the unjoints were not contacting the yokes and moved freely and that the brand new Timken bearing was not binding. I checked the end of the axle shaft for any indication that it was hitting on anything in the differential, there were no nicks or other damage to the splines or shaft end.

I slipped the old axle shaft back in and the problem went away. I have since trimmed the end of the new shaft to the length of my previously trimmed Tens Factory shaft and all is well.

I hopefully will have some time to crack open the differential next weekend but truly don’t know what to look for unless it is something very obvious.

I have a few question and hope you guys can shed some insights…

1. Is there anything unique about the Dana 30 that was installed in a 1997?
2. Can this be related to the Eaton E-locker. It has been I there for a long time and I can’t recall it it was installed before or after the issue appeared.
3. Maybe a bent tube?

Thoughts?

The problem stems from the similarity between the 30 spline Super 30 shafts and the stock 30 spline Rubicon shafts. The 44 diff is wider so the shafts are shorter than the Dana 30 but due to shifting the centers back and forth to maintain control arm geometry, there is some fudging going on.

That also leads the manufacturers to move the seal surfaces around and slightly change the length of the long side so they can use one shaft for both the Super 30 and 44.

I've had to trim them down and at times carefully remove the inboard side of the raised seal surface because it ran into the side of the carrier with a solid clunk.

If you are running 27 spline, then they were just made too long. Either way, the clunk is likely the raised seal surface hitting the end of the carrier and you won't see anything by pulling the diff cover.