spence

Hey, jpdocdave! Thank you for the timely reality check! I've already had one hand grenade and, as I said before, I'd really like this axle to last. I'm still having trouble understanding just what caused the pinion bearings to overload simply by removing and re-installing the yoke. I had never taken the pinion assembly out, as everything felt so good. The gear lash was minimal, the wear pattern on the gearset was perfectly centered and even, top to bottom and side to side, on the faces of the teeth. The only reason I would have changed the gears would have been to change the ratio. Anyway, I promise to get up to Land Auto (the only place local that's worth a hoot for Jeep parts) and get a selection of shims to do this right! P.S. Dave - thank you for the tact...I appreciate it! However, words like "foolhardy" and "dumb_$$" are okay with me if I deserve them. Thanx again, Spence.

Hint taken, Pete! As for the 44, I looked at it closely today. I mic'd the shims carefully, inside and out, and found that they were still .010", .025" and .025" respectively, definately not as bad as they looked (felt) in the dusk last evening. After studying how the whole pinion assembly worked and stayed in position, I decided to reassemble it. Common (?) sense told me that it wouldn't take anywhere near the number of ft/lbs. I had tried initially. What I needed to do was to take up the end play, seat the bearings without distorting them (keeping in mind that when everything heated up and expanded, things would get even tighter) and not pay any particular attention to the amount of torque was being exerted on the pinion nut. As I see it, the purpose of the pinion nut in this assembly is primarily to hold things together as you have set them. So, with that in mind, I reassembled the pinion assembly in the housing (lubed thoroughly with Mobil 1...I love that stuff!), tapped on the yoke far enough that I could slide the thrust washer on and get the pinion nut started, and then carefully took up the slack, holding the yoke with a large wrench and drawing down on the pinion nut until everything felt snug and all of the end play was gone. As the original design of the pinion nut looked to be a "one timer" self-locking style, I took it back off at this point and applied some red Loctite to the shaft threads, and reseated the pinion nut as before. Felt really good (I've done a lot of race bikes in my day, so I know what both good AND bad feel like!), so I popped the ring and differential back in, tightened the cap bolts to 90 ft/lbs., squirted Mobil 1 all over everything and gave it a spin. OOOH, LA-LA! Felt so nice and smooth that I slid in the axles and spun it again. Still OOH, LA-LA! This baby's goin' back in de truck!!! Now, to find a 1" shorter driveshaft! Thanx, Spence.

Sounds sort of like you have a bad ground (12VDC negative). Could be why your gas gauge is acting like it is, using the resistive ground of the fuel sender as 12VDC negative. Have you noticed if the gas gauge light gets brighter as your RPM's increase? I haven't looked at a schematic, but it could be possible that the reason that the headlamp indicator works is that it gets it's power from the headlight cicuit. Anybody have a schematic?

Better, but not better ENOUGH! ROLL TIDE!

Well, the answer is........NO crush sleeve! And, interestingly enough, you CAN crush preload shims (or at least deform them BADLY). I haven't mic'd them yet, but I'm willing to bet that the part of the shim around the inner hole is thinner than the rest of the shim. That portion of the shims is actually curled, so badly, in fact, that I had trouble getting the one which rides against the step on the shaft off. I had to quit, as it was getting to dark to see, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to mic the shims and inspect the bearing at the yoke end. The pinion end bearing appears to be alright. I hope that the rest of you do-it-yourselfers take note of this and learn from my mistake. Don't act just based on what you've read! The Dana 44 yoke torque specs that I had stated 200-220 ft/lbs.. WRONG! If I had just taken the time to post this question here before going off half-cocked, I would have known just from the varied responses that I got that I'd better get a more definitive answer. If anyone here could give me the correct procedure, I'd be much obliged. Thanx, Spence. P.S. Hornbrod, do you know how tough it is being a 'Bama fan down here in Ft. Myers with all these folks and their loser team. Hell, a real gator could play better football!

I'll open it up tomorrow evening and see what I hath wrought. If it doesn't have a crush sleeve (and I know that God and a 'Baman with a dog that smokes have spoken), I'll check back in for procedure and specs. Thanx, Spence.

O.K., I guess it either does or doesn't have a crush sleeve. I'll tear it back down and we'll see. Just to further complicate things, I got the Spicer/Dana exploded view for the axle. This drawing had the basic "explosion" showing no crush sleeve, with an insert "explosion" showing the crush sleeve version! BTW, my axle is an '88 MJ, P.N.8953004694, a 3.54:1 non-limited slip. My MJ is an '88 2WD Eliminator SWB w/ the factory roll bar that I'm whipping into a little street machine. Anyone know where I can get a pair of 2" shorter front coils? Rollpan? Airdam? Thanx, Spence.

O.K., I guess I screwed up. I've been overhauling my junkyard Dana 44 as time and money permit. Finally got the new axle bearings, seals, etc. put on and had the local machine shop open up the 10"x1 3/4" Dana 35 backing plates to fit the 44, got all new brake parts and shoes, and, to begin the assembly, I installed a new pinion yoke seal. Specs I had were 200-220 ft/lbs. for the pinion nut, so, beginning at 150 ft/lbs., I torqued it down in 10 ft/lb. increments, testing how the pinion play and rotation felt after each click of the torque wrench. Everything was good through 210 ft/lbs., but I just had to go for 220! Rats! Now it feels "sticky", and has increased backlash. The tech at the local machine shop says that I probably over-crushed the crush sleeve. Trouble is, everything I've found on these axles says that they're not a crush sleeve type. What did I do? Crush the preload shims? I haven't had a chance to open it up and knock the pinion shaft out to survey the damage. Anyone have any ideas on what to look for when I do? I want this to be right, as I'm planing an LS-1 swap in the future and I want to use this axle. Thanx, Spence.

I have personally used the Spydertrax for several years on my XJ's running 15x12 MT classics, shoed with 33x12.5 Mud Grapplers. Torqued them to 90PSI and never had ANY problems with loosening, even at 90MPH on the road or blasting through the swamp. Just make sure you get all the crud off of the hub mounting surface first.

Thanx, dudes! I'm on it!

I know that somebody out there has to have already shopped this: Who's got the best deal on bearing/seal kits for a Comanche Dana 44? I need two outer bearing/seal kits and a pinion seal. I'd prefer Timken (they're old school, like me!) Thanx!

The gear ratio tag has a part number on it. 8953005005 is a Dana 44, 3.07, non-limited slip; 8953005006 is a Dana 44, 3.07 limited slip, and 8953005416 is a Dana 44, 3.07 limited slip (the one I wanted but couldn't find).

Thanx for the responses, y'all! I'm not only gonna do that, but I'm gonna go ahead and use all of the 10 x 1 3/4 brake stuff from the 35, 'coz it's durn near "brandy new", too! My '88 Eliminator 2WD will never go more off road than a cow pasture road, and the only time you have to stop or slow down in Florida is to make a U-turn! And southern Florida is flatternapancake! They'll do until I get around to an Exploder disc brake conversion. Thanx again!

Mine growled at me as you described. I got lucky, as it went crunch right in front of the house, not 50 miles away, at work. If you let it go, it will make a really cool gear tooth pattern on the differential housing inside of the pumpkin!

I'm overhauling my Dana 44 and was wondering why I couldn't use the retaining plates from a Dana 35. I know the hole is smaller than the ones for the 44, but it looks like it will still clear the seal lips. Other than that, although it is dimensionally slightly smaller, the bolt pattern and thickness are the same. Has anyone been down this road before? My 44 retaining plates are wasted and I have a pair of like new ones from a 35. Thanx

Thanx for the info, guys! Sounds like I'm set. Now, how do I delete this wanted ad (56 year old computer retard)? And, BTW hornbrod, ROLL TIDE! (My wife's from Mobile). Thanx, again!

Thanx for the quick reply, jpnjim. Originally, that's what I had planned to do. However, when I got the D44 home and side-to-side with the D35 (mine had the 10" x 1.75" brakes), I noticed that the backing plates on the D35 were thinner (width) and the recesses (where the shoes and hardware are mounted) were shallower. I was going to dismantle the brakes on the D35 tomorrow, so I'll go ahead and try reassembling them on the D44 and see what happens. It would be great if it works, as the D35 plates are in perfect shape (168,510 miles and still have the factory paint on them! Only in Florida!). I'll post the outcome on the tech forum, so everyone else can know.

Bought an '88 Dana 44 for my 2WD '88 Eliminator to replace my crunched 35. Sandblasting revealed holes through the backing plates (driving on the beach only LOOKS like a good idea), so I've been looking everywhere for replacements. Does anyone have a pair left over from a disc brake conversion, maybe?