Re gearing the Dana 30 – aborted
I had planned to install 4.10 gears in Jenny’s XJ this weekend. I removed the wheels, brake calipers, rotors and pulled the hubs and axles out enough to get the carrier out.
I then removed the cover and the carrier. I did not need to spread the case at all. It slipped right out indicating that the bearings were pretty worn.
Next I removed the pinion and the associated parts. As I was driving out the races from the housing, I noticed there was an oil baffle under the inner pinion race. I found no way to save it while driving out the race. I carefully marked all the parts so I would know where they went back.
I did not have the right sized punch to knock out the roll pin that holds the cross shaft in place. After some experimenting, I found an old drill but that worked. I then found that the pin would not come out with erring gear installed. So, I removed the ring gear. A few light taps with a hammer caused it to pop off the carrier.
Next, I removed the spider gears and shims to transfer to the new carrier. Since the 3.55 gears use a different carrier from the 4.10 gears, she had to replace the carrier. I found driving the pin in to the carrier and keeping the spider gears aligned to be difficult. In fact I damaged one of the spider gear shims the first time I installed the pin and had to get a replacement.
Once the spider gears were in place, I prepared to install the ring gear. I set the carrier in the freezer and the ring gear in the oven. I heated it to 200 degrees while I had a Coke and a sandwich.
I then set the warm gear on the cool carrier and it slipped right on. I put in a couple of bolts to make sure it was lined up correctly.
I was then got ready to put the bearings on the pinion. When I unwrapped the pinion from the black plastic, I suddenly noticed it looked different. It had different landings for the bearings. I then noticed it was longer. I started making comparisons and then realized there was no way this pinion was going to work in the housing.
I then laid the old ring gear beside the new one and saw the obvious different slant of the gears. She had been sold the wrong rotation gear set. XJs and a few Wranglers use Reverse cut gears in a high pinion Dana 30. Most Wranglers, ZJs and Fords use the standard cut low pinion Dana 30.
So, her Jeep sits on the lift waiting for her to get the proper cut gears and bearing set so we can finish up. We also have to find a source for the oil baffle since it looks like I will destroy one for each trial of the pinion depth shims. I have decide that the Dana engineers have worked overtime to design the most annoying way to set up a differential. Maybe it will not be that bad once I get the hang of it.
Update: After getting miss delivered and lost for a week, I finally go t the right set of gears for the install. I sat all the a parts out on the floor to make sure I had all I needed.
I mounted the new ring gear on the new carrier. I applied the lock tite from the kit and tightened the new bolts to 55 ft lbs. I removed the old bearings from the old carrier and retrieved the shims from under them.
I made some set up bearings by opening up the inner race of some used bearings I had. Not the ones that came off the old carrier because those seemed really worn. I then put the shims under the set up bearings and slipped them in place.
I used my bearing separator to pull the old pinion bearing to retrieve the slinger under it. The slinger bent some as the bearing separator was tightened up but it sprang back flat once it was off the pinion.
I slipped the slinger on the new pinion. I then heated up the new bearing with my hot air gun and slipped it onto the pinion as well.
I measured the shim pack under the race and prepared a new set of shims to account for the difference in marked pinion depth and for the oil baffle.
I will use a .020 shim in place of the baffle for the trial fits and then install the baffle once I have the right shim pack picked out.
Now, I am ready to have the Jeep back on the lift to complete the installation.
Update: The regear is now complete: See Dana 30 Gears
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