dana 44 pinion seal replacement

[RACKMAN]

Can anybody with experience answer a couple questions...I basically know the process, but just to be sure, what is the correct way to do it and also I've heard some people say that it's almost impossible to get the pinion nut off without a 3/4" impact gun with 150lbs of air pressure I only have a 1/2" impact gun with the typical 125lbs of pressure....so is this true? Thanks.

RACKMAN

[calltrex]

Can anybody with experience answer a couple questions...I basically know the process, but just to be sure, what is the correct way to do it and also I've heard some people say that it's almost impossible to get the pinion nut off without a 3/4" impact gun with 150lbs of air pressure I only have a 1/2" impact gun with the typical 125lbs of pressure....so is this true? Thanks.

RACKMAN

I just did mine with no impact guns.  All you need is a pipe wrench to hold the yoke and a 1/2 socket with breaker bar..  make sure u put the nut back on with the same pressure..

[Rookie]

Can anybody with experience answer a couple questions...I basically know the process, but just to be sure, what is the correct way to do it and also I've heard some people say that it's almost impossible to get the pinion nut off without a 3/4" impact gun with 150lbs of air pressure I only have a 1/2" impact gun with the typical 125lbs of pressure....so is this true? Thanks.

RACKMAN

You will need a inch pound dial or beam torque wrench to get the preload set the same or 2-5 inch pound higher

[hps4evr]

mark the end of the pinion to the nut. undo the nut with your impact gun, change the seal, run the nut up with the gun until your marks line up again. if there is a crush sleave in there i highly doubt your impact gun will crush it more. this technique works quick, easy, and i have yet to see one of mine come back leaking or with bearing issues.

[Gearhead]

A D44 doesn't  use a crush sleeve , there are pinion bearing preload shims instead.

How simple is that , a torque wrench will suffice to fasten the nut.  A new nut is required , these are not to be re-used.  Wanna know what the preload is now ? , measure the rolling torque with a meter type torque wrench . It get's a little more in depth and can be done a couple of ways. All you are doing is a seal replacement though ,  so pulling the yoke , replacing the seal and torquing a NEW nut isn't rocket science. I like the extra security of red loctite AND a NEW pinion nut.

Why a new nut ? .......... if you reuse the old nut and it doesn't maintain clampload , a potential catastrophy could follow , hardly worth it for the $5 or so a new nut is worth.  A backed off pinion nut may result in a pinion gear running amuck ,       very expensive  !

[rws]

x2 on Gearhead's description.   Do not use an impact gun to remove the pinion nut because there is a slight chance you will chip your gearset,  instead go with the pipe wrench.  Do use a new nut with red locktite and put a dap of silicon under the washer to keep gearlube from leaking around the pinion gear splines.  A simple job that  sounds more complicated than it is.

[Bnine]

If you can chip gears with an impact, you have a probem with your gears. They take more load then that on a daily basis.

Anyways

Dont count threads or mark nuts. Thats an easy way to screw up the preload.

Pull the wheels and measure the existing preload with an inch lb dial type wrench.

Remove nut and seal. Install seal. Torque new nut until previous preload value is acheived.

Ensure that the sealing surface is exceptionally clean, and clear of any oil residue. Use a finger of new oil on the outside of the yoke, or inner lip of the seal.

Any other method is stricly guesswork.

A new pinion nut should be used, like Jeff said. Loctite never hurts.

My 1/2" impact pulls most pinion nuts without issue.

[cLAY]

Not all D44s use pinion shim stacks, some do use crush sleeves. Also if someone has rebuilt the diff they may have changed to a crush sleeve. The method Bnine described above will work well for a crush sleeve system, just make sure that you measure the rolling torque before taking off the yoke. The specs given in the manuals assume that the carrier and and shafts are not in.

If you have a pinion bearing pre-load shim stack then simply find the torque rating for the pinion nut and crank it up to that value. I will often reuse a pinion nut but will add some blue loctite to the threads.

[Bnine]

If there's even a remote chance that its ever been rebuilt, I wouldnt trust spec.

I never trust spec personally. Specially since ever manual, gear vendor, and varying years often give me different values for the same thing, and sometimes ranges.

I dont torque shim types to a set 250lbs. I set the preload to where it takes 200plus ft/lbs to get that preload, but I dont play with shims until I get 15 inch/lbs @ 250 ft lbs torque exactly.

You are either going to mess around for hours 1 thou shim at a time, or compromise the preload. IMHO.

Just my method. To each their own.

[cLAY]

HaHa good point. I just don't mess with shim packs anymore, if the rebuild kit doesn't come with one then I buy one. I've confused more than a few guys at the gear center by asking for d44 crush sleeve. Then they ask what is it one, I tell them and they look in their book and say that year/model doesn't use a crush sleeve. So then I usually just get frsutrated and say just give me one for an '86 Dodge Ramcharger and then usually I get what I want......usually.   

[Vinman]

Copied directly from a 2003 Factory Service Manual (Dana 44)

INSTALLATION
(1) Apply a light coating of gear lubricant on the
lip of pinion seal. Install seal with Installer 8681
(Fig. 29).
(2) Install yoke on pinion gear with Installer
W-162–D, Cup 8109 and Spanner Wrench 6958 (Fig.
30).
(3) Install pinion washer and a new nut on the
pinion gear and tighten the nut until there is zero
bearing end-play.
(4) Hold pinion yoke with Spanner Wrench 6958
(Fig. 31) and tighten pinion nut to 217 to 271N·m
(160 to 200 ft. lbs.).
(5) Install propeller shaft with reference marks
aligned.
(6) Add gear lubricant to the differential if necessary.

[spyder]

Thanks Vince.

The 160-200lbs is the range to used to acheive specified bearing preload.

later in the chapter is a spec chart with preload values for new and used bearings.

Thats funny Clay, different strokes eh  I prefer shim so I can avoid the whole 1 shot thing, and not have to worry about spare crush sleeves all the time. I run into a lot of d30 that are to short and end up needing custom shimming under them to get them crushing..................grr

[Rookie]

Thanks Vince.

The 160-200lbs is the range to used to acheive specified bearing preload.

later in the chapter is a spec chart with preload values for new and used bearings.

Thats funny Clay, different strokes eh  I prefer shim so I can avoid the whole 1 shot thing, and not have to worry about spare crush sleeves all the time. I run into a lot of d30 that are to short and end up needing custom shimming under them to get them crushing..................grr

It's kinda funny Denise you sound just like Billy in this post 

[Bnine]

ROFL

I was wondering how Dom got a pic of my kids and change my profile pic..............again.

[rws]

One homemade tool that I made to make this type of job even simpler is a "yoke hold" tool that functions similar to the spanner wrench mentioned above.   It is constructed out of a long piece  of 2x2 tubing  with a shorter  piece of the same tubing bolted on at the end.  The beauty of  this tool is that it holds the yoke tight while you torque the pinion nut and it also makes setting gears alot easier if the axle is out of the vehicle. This thing is like a huge pipe wrench and will save alot of frustration in getting the preload correct.