Dana 44 question

Is it possible to replace the small pinion bearing, cone and cup, without removing the shafts and differential?

if you're talking about outer, nope, torquing the yoke on essentially presses it onto the pinion.

1998xj1985 said:

if you're talking about outer, nope, torquing the yoke on essentially presses it onto the pinion.

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I can remove the yoke seal and cone, is there enough room to use some kind of puller to pull the race?

hmmm..not sure how you managed that. but that being the case, you try using some generic puller to get in there, but i don't see that happening. why do you not want to pull the diff? if you're just changing a bearing, which it sounds like you are, just measure the difference between old and new bearing and add or subtract shims to keep it the same thickness.

1998xj1985 said:

hmmm..not sure how you managed that. but that being the case, you try using some generic puller to get in there, but i don't see that happening. why do you not want to pull the diff? if you're just changing a bearing, which it sounds like you are, just measure the difference between old and new bearing and add or subtract shims to keep it the same thickness.

Click to expand...

Just to make sure that we are talking about the same thing, the yoke can come off by removing the yoke nut, the seal is no problem, nothing holding the bearing there anymore, should slide right out, am I missing anything so far? The only question in my mind is whether I can get the race off the housing. I put the whole thing together a couple of years ago and I suspect that the bearing on the yoke side is bad. I want to replace both parts of the bearing, I cannot remember if there is enough room between the pinion shaft and race to get a puller on the race.

having just done this 2 months ago, i a) can't figure out how you left the diff assembled and got the cone out - i have always had to tap the yoke end of the pinion to "press" the bearing off the pinion. and b) can't imagine being able get a puller in there that could get the race out - i have always had to smash on it from the inside out with some kind of soft punch(usually alum. rod) until it falls out. if you're just replacing the bearing, as long as you account for the thickness difference in the preload shim stack, there should be no problem with pulling the shafts and the diff.

I guess I may have to live with it till I have the time to take everything apart.
When I put it together, I was shimming the pinion for the preload. I noticed that the pinion was not turning smoothly, like ratcheting a little. I checked both pinion bearings, they looked good and running out of time, I decided to finish the job. Worked great for a while. A few months ago I started getting a ticking noise that is driving me nuts. It happens sometimes only, not always, when I am doing 20mph or less, follows the speed of the driveshaft and only happens while decelerating. When it does it, if I touch the gas it disappears. To me it means the front pinion bearing and given that I didn't like the feeling of the pinion bearings during installation, I would like to replace it. Without taking anything else apart if possible, it happens to be my DD and I need it.