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XJ Dana 44 Swap, gone wrong.

K

kray.xj

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Knoxville, TN
Long time listener, first time caller.

Swapped in a factory dana44 w/ Trac-loc last week. It locked up on the interstate and nearly killed me on Friday. Tore down the entire axle and rebuilt it this weekend. XJ is still not a happy camper. I'm at a loss. Can anyone push me in the right direction?

Current symptoms:
1) Rotational grinding noise - My first thought is the brakes are dragging but I checked and the tires spin nearly freely off the ground. ???
2) Coasting results in a whining noise - figure i'll need to reshim the carrier??
3) Can't turn the driveshaft freely in neutral with tires off the ground. It catches every few rotations. Not sure if this is due to the Trac-Loc system or not. This is my first vehicle with a LSD system.

It's a bear to drive, as the grinding noise is extremely loud and unnerving. I'm also terried it's going to lock up agian on me. I've done a handfull of axle swaps before and I've never encountered anything like this :helpme:

WW0lvQkl.jpg
 
When you say you rebuilt it, did you check the gear pattern? Pinion preload? Carrier preload? Which bearings did you replace?
 
I pulled the drum brakes off completely. Yanked the axles out. Pulled the carrier out. Found odd huge rubber seals smashed in between the axle tubes and the carrier bearings. They were both mutilated. Also found chipped carrier bearings and LSD spacer ring bits.

Cleaned everything as I was tearing apart...

I replaced the carrier bearings and races with Timken from Autozone. Made sure shims were replaced like they were taken off.
yu8XgKNm.jpg


Refilled with 80-90w and lsd additive.

I didn't have time to check gear pattern. Don't have the know-how to check carrier preload. Didn't touch pinion.

Slid axles shafts back in. Repacked them with hi-temp grease.

Replaced wheel cylinders on both sides.

I believe that sums it up...oh and my buddy insisted I do the u-bolt mod on the driveshaft, so I did that as well.
NOTE: I'm just a weekend warrior/backyard mechanic. I don't claim to know it all. I just know enough to get myself in trouble :\
 
Last edited:
Flyfisher said:
Any clue why it locked up in the first place? What did you find when you tore into it?
Click to expand...

No clue what-so-ever. My head goes to improper brake adjustment or bad bleed procedure....but I honestly do not know. I tore the brakes completely apart and re-bled the entire system. Still have the LOUD rotational growling/grinding noise. The only other thing I can think of is t-case is going out maybe? I have no clue....

The noise is LOUD. This isn't a faint bearing failure noise. It's a large something rubbing the heck out of something else.
 
It sounds like you should pop the cover and check to see if there's metal in the lube - I'd expect it with that kind of noise coming from the diff.

Did the pinion spin fairly freely in the housing without the carrier installed? Any side to side or end play in the pinion?

The seals smashed in between the tube and housing are actually RTV applied before the tubes are pressed in and plug welded by the factory, no worries there. Tearing the excess RTV bead off shouldn't affect it either.
 
... that's given me an idea, SanDiego.

kray - what axle did you swap out (assuming a d35) and what driveshaft did you use?
 
kastein said:
It sounds like you should pop the cover and check to see if there's metal in the lube - I'd expect it with that kind of noise coming from the diff.

Did the pinion spin fairly freely in the housing without the carrier installed? Any side to side or end play in the pinion?

The seals smashed in between the tube and housing are actually RTV applied before the tubes are pressed in and plug welded by the factory, no worries there. Tearing the excess RTV bead off shouldn't affect it either.
Click to expand...

pinion seemed perfectly fine. No play or discoloration. I was going to rebuilt it but it really did seem fine.

Seals were definitely for-real seals with structure. RTV wouldn't be that fancy/nice looking. They were both mutilated around 1/2 the circumference however. Maybe heat?
 
I've got a sneaking suspicion that the driveshaft is too long... IIRC, you want an 8.25/44 length shaft for a 44 swap. Did you have trouble getting the driveshaft in? Is it sunk further into the transfer case than it was when you started?
 
kastein said:
I've got a sneaking suspicion that the driveshaft is too long... IIRC, you want an 8.25/44 length shaft for a 44 swap. Did you have trouble getting the driveshaft in? Is it sunk further into the transfer case than it was when you started?
Click to expand...

It did sink slightly more in but still had room to wiggle around in/out. I read if you have over 2-3" lift it works so I just used the same driveshaft.

What vehicles make good driveshaft substitutes? I can run to pull-a-part one evening and grab one.
 
Where did you get the D44 from?

Reading through the posts this is what info I have gathered:

You purchased axle from ?
Installed and within 1 week it locked up on freeway.
Pulled axle apart and rebuilt, but used same shim setup.
Axle now whines and growls

To me this sounds like the gears were never properly set in the first place. If you don't have the tools to set the gears take the axle in and have it done.

Or you can attempt it yourself. I have done a few installs and this link is a great guide. Getting Gears Done
 
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I believe a 91-95 XJ with the same engine/trans as yours (probably 4.0/auto?) same 4x4 vs 2x4 status and an 8.25 rear should work fine.

Were you able to get the driveshaft in without jacking around with it with the rear wheels on the ground? How about with the rear suspension fully drooped?
 
WAZZUXJ said:
Where did you get the D44 from?

Reading through the posts this is what info I have gathered:

You purchased axle from ?
Installed and within 1 week it locked up on freeway.
Pulled axle apart and rebuilt, but used same shim setup.

To me this sounds like the gears were never properly set in the first place. If you don't have the tools to set the gears take the axle in and have it done.

Or you can attempt it yourself. I have done a few installs and this link is a great guide. Getting Gears Done
Click to expand...
That's a fair assessment. I purchased the axle from a local. I was told it was in working order and had been refreshed recently. I did not listen to my gut and threw it under the truck as soon as I could because I love wrenching. Test drove it that night and everything seemed perfectly normal. No noises. No vibrations. Drove to work the next morning and on the way all hell broke loose (this was last friday). Tore the axle down and replaced what I could over the weekend. I'd prefer to do things myself as I like to learn and grow when it comes to knowledge based tasks like this. Plus I dont want to pay a shop $500 to poke at my axle a little bit.
 
kastein said:
I believe a 91-95 XJ with the same engine/trans as yours (probably 4.0/auto?) same 4x4 vs 2x4 status and an 8.25 rear should work fine.

Were you able to get the driveshaft in without jacking around with it with the rear wheels on the ground? How about with the rear suspension fully drooped?
Click to expand...

That's a really good point, actually...
I put the driveshaft in when it was on jacks. I didn't check it after I got the wheels/tires back and dropped it on the ground. The funny thing is I test drove it after finishing the initial swap last Thursday night and everything was PERFECT. It wasn't until half-way into work the next morning all the noises/disaster started.
 
Sounds to me like some bits of metal from the lsd found themselves between the pinion and ring gear and locked them up. Pull the cover and see what's in there.
 
The driveshaft is a good idea, but the D44 is only 1" longer than the D35. Add a 4.5" lift and the difference in length is negligable (unless the driveshaft was previously lengthend for the D35). I would check your driveshaft angles though and u-joints.
 
bluejeepkid said:
Sounds to me like some bits of metal from the lsd found themselves between the pinion and ring gear and locked them up. Pull the cover and see what's in there.
Click to expand...

When I made it home that was the first thing I did. Found two large twisted metal bits. Appeared to be from the driver-side carrier bearing and passengar-side LSD retaining spacer. (both had large chunks missing). Also had a lot of fine metal particles in the fluid that I drained. Fluid appeared to be some-what low too. I smacked myself in the head for not triple checking this before really driving around on the new axle. I had stuck my pinky in there right after finishing the swap but that was at 2AM and I didn't think about it being up in the air and the axle hanging.
 
WAZZUXJ said:
The driveshaft is a good idea, but the D44 is only 1" longer than the D35. Add a 4.5" lift and the difference in length is negligable (unless the driveshaft was previously lengthend for the D35). I would check your driveshaft angles though and u-joints.
Click to expand...

Driveshaft angles aren't great but I've definitely seen far far worse that was still road worthy.
 
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