Pinion gear swap question

Sean295

Sean295

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Livonia, Michigan, United States
Soooo....driving around in my 1997 Wrangler TJ and my pinion bearing came apart....very messy inside.....Took it apart and both the ring gear and pinion gear are marked up.....cleaned it all out, put new pinion bearing it it cause I have to be able to move it and she works but has a growl.....

Question is...Mine is a dana 35...I counted the pinion and it has 14 teeth...counted the ring and forgot to write it down but after I count them again....can i take any dana 35 pumpkin (meaning ring gear assembly ) and pinion from like a Cherokee with the same ratio and put it in my axle housing?
 
Sean295 said:
Soooo....driving around in my 1997 Wrangler TJ and my pinion bearing came apart....very messy inside.....Took it apart and both the ring gear and pinion gear are marked up.....cleaned it all out, put new pinion bearing it it cause I have to be able to move it and she works but has a growl.....

Question is...Mine is a dana 35...I counted the pinion and it has 14 teeth...counted the ring and forgot to write it down but after I count them again....can i take any dana 35 pumpkin (meaning ring gear assembly ) and pinion from like a Cherokee with the same ratio and put it in my axle housing?
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Yes and no. It really depends on your current gear ratio. The gear ratio determines which carrier your differential will require. I believe the Dana 35 uses a different carrier for 3.73 than it does for 4.10. I am not sure where ther carrier break is on the Dana 35.

However if you were to take it all meaning the ring,pinion, and carrier you could swap it.

But it has to be setup by someone who can setup differentials no matter what you find.

Also the gear ratio in the rear axle has to match the front axle should you ever want to use 4wd again.
 
Going by the diff cover shape it is a dana 35....the tag on it is veryyyy rusty...the top line appears to be 2111760 and the bottom line all i can make out is 07 599 so i think i have a stock 3:07 ratio gearing....I found a 99 wrangler dana35 axle with 3:07 ratio on craigsl.....can I just swapout that pinion and gear assembly? I know about the crush spacer and torquing that....other than that it should be easy.....Just not sure I want to disconnect all the linkage, brake line, parking brake...etc....
 
You can use the gears. The ring gear will have the gear ratio stamped into it or have a couple numbers stamped into it. The first number being the amount of teeth on the ring gear and the other stamped number being the amount of teeth on the pinion. Or vise versa.

You will need a new crush sleeve. And if it was me, I would do a master install kit with all new bearings.

Again the pinion and ring will fit it is infact the same exact ratio you already have in your rear diff. However it does need to be setup by a professional.

I am not sure what you mean when you mentioned removing the parking brake and and linkage...
 
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To begin, did you replace both bearings and races for the pinion? How did the carrier bearings look?

No, you cannot just slap in a gear set and run it. It has to be set up for that particular housing. If you are going that far, just replace the entire differential.

You have 3.07, the ring gear will have 43 teeth, 43/14= 3.07.

The Dana 35 carrier break is 3.55 and up, 3.31 and down.
 
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Going to hijack this thread so that I don't have to start another one. :D

I currently have a bent Dana 30 axle housing under my Jeep. I am replacing it with a straight Dana 30. For this process, the 'new' Dana 30 needs to be sandblasted and re-coated so it doesn't look like a POS. So, the correct way to do this would be to remove the guts of the axle to avoid the possibility of getting gritty sand on my gears and bearings, seal all the orafices on the axle housing, and have it sandblasted, primed, and painted.

I would personally love to take apart my axle just to see how it works. However, I am wary about messing with shims on the ring gear and pre-load on the pinion in the process of taking the carrier out. But, if I take everything out and put it back exactly the way it was, do I have to worry about anything (worry about messing with my factory set contact points on my ring and pinion, which, if I do mess up will cost a lot of money to have someone professionally fix it)?
 
@Kyle_W, do not disassemble the "new" Dana 30. Honestly, I wouldn't waste my time and money having it media blasted. Make sure it is all sealed up and power wash it. Hit with some Rustoleum and call it good. If any media gets left behind, it will destroy your bearings quickly. If you wanna play around, great learning experience by the way, disassemble the bent Dana 30.
 
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If I was sandblasting an axle assembly for someone I would only do the blast if they supplied the housing with all bearing and seals removed.

The cost, labor, or headache involved of having to replace the seals or bearings later because of sand or other blasting debris compromising the interior of the housing would not be worth my time especially if it compromised the more critical components in the axle housing.

Long story short, Yes, I would advise you to pull everything out of the axle if you are going to sandblast it, I'd take that into consideration when thinking "do I really want to sandblast this axle." Taking pictures and notes as your uninstall/breakdown the differential. Taking special note of the shims on either side of the ring gear bearings and shims behind the pinion.

Cleaning this axle assembly out of all debris after blasting is essential. If you install everything in the exact way it came out you should not have a problem. If it was me, I would only run new seals and a new pinion crush sleeve.
 
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What I did was removed the pinion races and replaced them and the bearings, new crush spacer....torqued the pinion nut for the easy turning...put the carrier back in after I sprayed 4 cans of brake clean in it and wiped everything reallyyyyy good.....put the oil back in and I have about 50 miles on it....so far it is quiet and not getting hot.......to be on the safe side I bought the extra dana 35 rear axle assembly and also his front axle assembly for future replacement.

Kyle...you can safely remove the rear cover, drain the oil, remove the center locking pin, push the axles in till the clips fall out...remove the axles, mark the left and right carrier bearing caps...mark for top also....remove the caps and note the spacers that fall out with it by the bearing....then you have the hole carrier in your hands...leave the pinion in and you will not have to re torque the crush spacer or mess with that stuff......

I was planning on removing the new carrier and pinion, put in new seals and crush spacer, reuse the old spacer/washers with that carrier and pinion....put all that into the old axle housing........my current axle has a lot of marks on the ring gear and pinion gear but so far it is quiet even when doing 55 mph.....see what happens
 
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Will the 3:07 gearing be okay in my 97 with a 4.0 and 5 speed tranny if I put 31's on it? Afraid it will not be able to cruise in high gear on the freeway if I go to 32's or larger without regearing the axles.....
 
Depends if you want to do the job right or not.

Sometimes doing it right cost a lot of money. And sometimes we don't just have lots of money to throw at stuff.

Will you be "ok" with 3.07? Yes
Will you use 5th much now? No
Will you be able to tell that you have crappy gearing in the diffs? Yes
Will it make a big difference if you gear it correctly? Yes
 
@Sean295, my apologies, I thought this was an old thread (I didn't actually look at the posting dates) so I felt it wouldn't matter if I hijacked this thread. Mah bad!
 
Sean295 said:
Kyle......not a problem...as long as someone is learning something I don't really care what or who asks :)
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Well I actually do have a question pertaining to my pinion gear; I am replacing my axle seals, my wheel bearings, and all of my steering components and ball joints, and I am curious if there's anything I should do to my pinion gear while I have everything taken apart? Replace the seal or the bearing? Maybe even replace my axle bearings?
 
Kyle_W said:
Well I actually do have a question pertaining to my pinion gear; I am replacing my axle seals, my wheel bearings, and all of my steering components and ball joints, and I am curious if there's anything I should do to my pinion gear while I have everything taken apart? Replace the seal or the bearing? Maybe even replace my axle bearings?
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If the seal is not leaking, leave it be.
 
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