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Dana 44 has turned into a nightmare

89CAXJ

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Santa Clarita
I thought that I had hit pay dirt. I picked up a Dana 44 from Pick your Part and tore it down cleaned it and bought all new bearings, locker and brake parts. Turns out that the old bearings had turned in the housing and my rear end guy cant set it up. I placed an ad for some of the new parts in the for sale section if anyone is interested. I have the "no-slip" in the carrier with new bearings on it.
Ive been waiting along time for a 44 to show up in the scrap yard, and this one was definitely scrap. Due to time and $$ this project is on hold. BUMMER!

Mike
 
I set up a housing that had the bearing that spun. All I did was lay a piece of stainless shim that was .003", if I remember right, in the race. It forced the bearing into a fixed location and it set up fine and is still running fine to this day. The key is to see how loose the bearing fits and then make the adjustments. You can even take the bearing cap down a couple of thousandths to make it cage the bearing better, just like is done when rehabing rod end caps. I know it sounds like a shade tree mechanical fix, but this isn't rocket science.

In order for you not to be able to set up the gears, it must be loose enough to have the bearing race move around. A couple of thousandth of misalignment across the pumpkin isn't enough to screw things up. Otherwise hanging a diff on a rock would definately take out the gears every time.
 
Send the housing out to a good axle specialist and have the caps cut and the bearing bores alignhoned...should cost about a 100 bucks and good as new... No need to junk the housing just yet...
 
Turns out that the carrier housing will require some welding up and rehoning if its going to be used. The old bearings wore a groove in the housing and there is too much side to side play in the carrier.
I wish that the first guy who looked at this would have caught it but maybe he was seeing $$ on his cost for a complete rebuild and locker.

Any suggestions?
 
Yeah, have the guy take a punch and punch holes all around the inside of the cap and the housing where the race sets. That will build it up a little, and hopefullly grip the race enough to hold it in place. Worth a try, rather than throwing the housing away. That trick has been done before successfully.
 
You might also use epoxy - Easier and cheaper than welding., Just get the proper epoxy - oil resistant. I have used it on axle bearings - only difference is you have more oil in the carrier.
 
I had a front pinion bearing spin in my d44 housing. Only found out when he was gonna pop out the race and barely touched and the damn thing just fell out. Talk about bad luck.

-Mike
 
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