Dana 44 Strength

jeepboy381 · Mar 28, 2006

I was out at the Dunes this weekend and just crusing through the flats, shifted into third at about 20 mph and all of a sudden the rear end made a horrible noise. Come to find out all the teeth broke off the pinion, there was no sign that it was even going to break. I have 33 inch BFG's, a AX-15, and a lighly modified and rebuilt 4.0. The gears were profesionaly installed, and I am woundering if this should have broke. I am hard on it like everyone else but I don't beat the S@#$ out of it. Also in a 1 year span my lockright has broken twice. Dana 44 not strong enough or bad install?

Kejtar · Mar 28, 2006

jeepboy381 said:
I was out at the Dunes this weekend and just crusing through the flats, shifted into third at about 20 mph and all of a sudden the rear end made a horrible noise. Come to find out all the teeth broke off the pinion, there was no sign that it was even going to break. I have 33 inch BFG's, a AX-15, and a lighly modified and rebuilt 4.0. The gears were profesionaly installed, and I am woundering if this should have broke. I am hard on it like everyone else but I don't beat the S@#$ out of it. Also in a 1 year span my lockright has broken twice. Dana 44 not strong enough or bad install?

This doesn't sound right but I would point to bad gear install and maybe bad gears? What gear brand?

Wiley Coyote · Mar 28, 2006

jeepboy381 said:
Also in a 1 year span my lockright has broken twice.

Concur with the bad gear install. What do you mean by the Lock Right broke? Are you talking about the shear pins, the cross shaft or the actual couplers? If it’s the shear pins then that happens from time to time. They are easy/cheap to replace, but twice in one year is a little excessive. You might want to check the spacing/clearance on your carrier. If you are talking about the cross shaft, did you use the replacement cross shaft or the factory one? The replacement cross shaft is much harder and shouldn’t break. If the actual couplers broke then something is definitely wrong. Check the carrier for cracks, excessive space, etc.

Kejtar · Mar 28, 2006

Wiley Coyote said:
Concur with the bad gear install. What do you mean by the Lock Right broke? Are you talking about the shear pins, the cross shaft or the actual couplers? If it’s the shear pins then that happens from time to time. They are easy/cheap to replace, but twice in one year is a little excessive. You might want to check the spacing/clearance on your carrier. If you are talking about the cross shaft, did you use the replacement cross shaft or the factory one? The replacement cross shaft is much harder and shouldn’t break. If the actual couplers broke then something is definitely wrong. Check the carrier for cracks, excessive space, etc.

Well the breakage in the lockright might have resulted from a bad gear instal too. My non professional opinion would too much backlash maybe giving it more slop and making it kind of "slam hard" the pinion onto the ring gear when gas was applied.

Wiley Coyote · Mar 28, 2006

Kejtar said:
Well the breakage in the lockright might have resulted from a bad gear instal too. My non professional opinion would too much backlash maybe giving it more slop and making it kind of "slam hard" the pinion onto the ring gear when gas was applied.

I’m not sure if a bad gear install would cause a Lock Right to fail. The backlash setting was were I was going with the check the spacing/case comment.

Kejtar · Mar 28, 2006

Wiley Coyote said:
I’m not sure if a bad gear install would cause a Lock Right to fail. The backlash setting was were I was going with the check the spacing/case comment.

well... follow me on this: if you have the freespin on the shaft till the gears engage and then you have free spin within the locker till it engages if you have too much backlash by the time you get to the point where the locker should engage you have a fair amount of force/momentum going so cause of that bad gear install could potentially cause problems within the locker.

desertjeeper · Mar 28, 2006

Kejtar said:
Well the breakage in the lockright might have resulted from a bad gear instal too. My non professional opinion would too much backlash maybe giving it more slop and making it kind of "slam hard" the pinion onto the ring gear when gas was applied.

Not likely, backlash is in the few thousanth range. The lockright adds like 3/16" of slop on it's own. Basically it is designed to have that excess slop so a few thousanths more would not appriciably raise the "slam" factor. But twice in a year and now broken gears, I would look at that carrier real close and probably just replace it for good measure (they are cheap) sounds like it could be flexing. (Another non-professional opinion)

bj-666 · Mar 28, 2006

take some pics of the ring gear usually you can see a wear pattern on the gears and we can see if they were set up right.

jeepboy381 · Mar 28, 2006

It is in the shop today and should be done tonight, I will try and get a picture posted tonight also. With the lock right the pins broke after about 3 months after instal, then 3 months latter the side gears got so chaffed that they would no longer hold and they would just pop and snap all the time. I am leaning twords the fact that there was to much slop between the pinion and ring gear, it took quite a bit of movement to make the axles turn. Not a ton but more than I thought was right. I never broke my dana 30's internals, just U-joints. The guy that built it is positive it is my fault, my Dana 35's never had this many problems. Oh yeah and the Carrier is brand new.

KarlVP · Mar 28, 2006

did you break the gears in after install? Or did you just take it out and slam on them straight from the shop?

jeepboy381 · Mar 28, 2006

Nope they were broken in properly, and the oil has been changed numerous times. No dirt or water got in the axle ever!

cal · Mar 28, 2006

were the gears genuine brand?

jeepboy381 · Mar 28, 2006

I think they were, I bought them from 4 wheel parts.

cal · Mar 28, 2006

genuine gears have a reputation for that happening.

Kejtar · Mar 28, 2006

cal said:
genuine gears have a reputation for that happening.

yeah.. lifetime warranty that you actually will use

cal · Mar 28, 2006

Maybe, but I'd rather spend the extra $40 for something that isnt going to break the first time it gets hot.

Someday genuine and yukon may start making parts that dont fall apart at the sight of rocks, mud, sand or pavement .. but it hasnt happened yet.

jeepboy381 · Mar 29, 2006

So is there any other good gears out there than spicer?

RCP Phx · Mar 29, 2006

What ratio are you running?Ive got a Brand new set of Spicer D44 4.10's.

CRASH · Mar 29, 2006

jeepboy381 said:
So is there any other good gears out there than spicer?

Genuine is absolute crap.

Precision, US Gear, Richmond and Spicer are all very good.

Yukon and Superior are second tier, but I've never had a set break.

Everything else is everything else.

jeepboy381 · Mar 29, 2006

I have 4.56 ratio and the new gears are getting put in as we speak. I bought new ones not knowing mine had a lifetime warrenty so now I have a set of 4.56's just sitting around. Anyone want to buy some gears??

Dana 44 Strength

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