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Binding Gears in Dana 30

FiveNdime

FiveNdime

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Washington
Heres my situation. I have a high pinion D30 that I am installing 4.88 gears and an ARB in. I installed the pinion with factory shims and set the pre-load, and then installed the locker to correct backlash. Now when I rotate it it locks up and is super hard to turn for about 1/4 or the ring gear. I have no idea what It could be. The locker is Used but I have put a dial indicator to dang near every surface I can and its not out but more then 2 thousands anywhere. That much wouldn't cause my bind that I'm having, Ive done gears and lockers before and never ran into this issue. Any Ideas?
 
Sounds to me like the ring gear is not properly seated on the locker.
You mentioned checking the locker, but did you check the ring gear after installing it on the locker?

Edit: Was this gear set already in this particular D30? I'm guessing not as you mentioned "factory shims". If not, the original shims may not (and most likely not) be correct. If you got a decent set of gears there should be a marking on the pinion to show the difference from nominal. Use that difference from the old pinion that'll get you started somewhat close.
 
Last edited:
I had the same problem with my D30 when I was setting up my 4.56's. Turned out the new carrier was warped. I would guess that since your installing an ARB that is not the case. Check to make sure the mating surface of the locker and ring gear are clean and there are no burrs or anything that would cause the ring gear to not seat properly. Also make sure your carrier bearings are seated properly and your bearing caps are torqued to spec.
 
I didnt do one thing. That is to check the mating surface before I put the ring gear on. I am going to take the ring gear off and install it again to check run-out of the carrier. It is a used locker that I bought from a friend, who said it was good. I will see and post back up. My Gears are a new matched set from Nitro Gear to if that helps. Time to get back in the shop :roll:
 
Check to make sure the carrier bearings are fully seated on the locker. Sometimes they are hard to get fully seated because the shims are not perfectly centered under the bearing. Also look for burrs on the carrier or the mating surface of the ring gear.
 
Ok, I went through it with a fine tooth comb again and cleaned everything once over, assembled it and still the same thing. I also put the dial indicator on every surface I could again and same results as last time. I did however take the ring gear off and put the dial indicator on the ring gear mating surface and its really good. Since I had the gear off I took the old carrier and put the 4.88 ring gear on that and installed it. No binding on that one though the backlash was a bit high so that may have had something to do with it for sure. I am going to press on some new bearings onto the ARB carrier and see if that helps, but I dont have access to the press today so I will have to wait on that.
 
Messed with it some more. I think im still too deep on the pinion. Only problem is I cant take off the oil slinger. I think this because the pattern still looks like an umbrella shape and the pinion gear tooth hits both sides of the teeth on the ring gear. What the heck, I am getting so frustrated with this thing.:flamemad:
 
FiveNdime said:
Messed with it some more. I think im still too deep on the pinion. Only problem is I cant take off the oil slinger. I think this because the pattern still looks like an umbrella shape and the pinion gear tooth hits both sides of the teeth on the ring gear. What the heck, I am getting so frustrated with this thing.:flamemad:
Click to expand...
The shims are supposed to go behind the bearing cup for the inner pinion bearing, not on the pinion itself. Can you post up pics of the pattern?
 
I put the shim in between the oil slinger and the bearing which is where you can shim them. Factory shimmed allot of them by shimming the outer race out, either way yields the same results. I have no pics of the pattern as of now. I will post them later. I gave up for today and decided to go sit by the river and take a swim since its over 90 Degrees out. Shop gets hot on days like today.
 
Here is a photo of both Coast and Drive, made by the same pass. Yes the same pass, I didn't turn the ring gear the opposite direction to get the pattern. I think the ring gear may be bad?

Cost Side
D30Coast.jpg


Drive side, NOTICE the gear contact spot is smaller at the top of the pic then it is at the bottom. That's no illusion.
D30Drive.jpg
 
FiveNdime said:
Here is a photo of both Coast and Drive, made by the same pass. Yes the same pass, I didn't turn the ring gear the opposite direction to get the pattern. I think the ring gear may be bad?

Cost Side
D30Coast.jpg


Drive side, NOTICE the gear contact spot is smaller at the top of the pic then it is at the bottom. That's no illusion.
D30Drive.jpg
Click to expand...
That pattern is just fine except for the difference in size of the wear marks. It looks like you may just have a mismatched ring and pinion set.
 
Yeah, I'm going to give them a call today to find out what the deal is. I cant find any etching for serial numbers on the ring gear. Granted the pattern is close but man the binding sucks. I did notice some wear on the ring gear like they set it up in a test machine to check the gears and it was binding on them and they didn't know it causing some wear. OH freeeking frustrating. I had a 3 day wheeling trip to go on this weekend and now I wont be able to go because of this mess. I will post up my results later on what I find is wrong.
 
You should see a stamping on the ring gear somewhere and an etched in number on the "head" of the pinion, at least if they do things the same way Dana Spicer did.
 
I think all gears come with an etched number which is the "serial number" for the matched set. There is no number to be found on the ring gear of mine. Im pissed. This really blows.
 
outlander said:
You weren't going to break in the gears before going wheeling?Bad idea....
Click to expand...

he never said that. it doesnt take that long to break in the gears.
 
88xj 4.0 31" said:
he never said that. it doesnt take that long to break in the gears.
Click to expand...


Thanks for reading 88xj 4.0 31" :eyes:

I never said I wasn't going to break them in. I said I had a wheeling trip to go on and because of this mess I cant go.

I found out why its binding up. I put a dial indicator on the ring gear teeth. Specifically on the heel and toe side. I put a piece of tape all the way around the ring gear and wrote down how far out it was for run-out on each side of the tooth. To make it short its all over the freeking board. Its out over .004". To put it in better words for it being all over hte board here is some numbers.

.002" a few teeth later .004" a total of 2 teeth later .002 and 4 teeth later back to .000" and then back up to .001 and so on with the variations. I called the guy helping me with this who has done thousands of setups and he told me the gears are no good and to have them send you another set. To top it off there is no serial number to match the set on the ring gear. Tomorrow the company that sold them to me is getting a call and so is the Gear company. I will post up my results.
 
FiveNdime said:
Thanks for reading 88xj 4.0 31" :eyes:

I never said I wasn't going to break them in. I said I had a wheeling trip to go on and because of this mess I cant go.

I found out why its binding up. I put a dial indicator on the ring gear teeth. Specifically on the heel and toe side. I put a piece of tape all the way around the ring gear and wrote down how far out it was for run-out on each side of the tooth. To make it short its all over the freeking board. Its out over .004". To put it in better words for it being all over hte board here is some numbers.

.002" a few teeth later .004" a total of 2 teeth later .002 and 4 teeth later back to .000" and then back up to .001 and so on with the variations. I called the guy helping me with this who has done thousands of setups and he told me the gears are no good and to have them send you another set. To top it off there is no serial number to match the set on the ring gear. Tomorrow the company that sold them to me is getting a call and so is the Gear company. I will post up my results.
Click to expand...
Wow man. Stories like this sure do make ya nervous :shiver:
 
FiveNdime said:
Tomorrow the company that sold them to me is getting a call and so is the Gear company. I will post up my results.
Click to expand...

I'm bummed to hear about all the bad luck you've been having. I was hoping the front would go easier for you.

Here's the plan though:
- Tuesday: Have the vendor overnight a new gear set to you, because you got wheeling to do
- Wednesday: Install new correct gear set
- Thursday: Break in
- Friday: Leave for Evans, and realize it all was worth it

:D
 
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