semi rebuild cherokee dana 44 questions

im swapping in a cherokee d44 for the first time.
i pulled shafts with good seals from a yard for 50$ since the old outer seals where shot and now i have spares . i also picked up some spiders since the previous owner welded them and did a crappy ass job and the welds are shot, so im gonna go open until i can afford new rear 33" swampers, 4.56's and a aussie. so i had to pull the carrier to install new spiders since the ring gear was in the way.

so first off, when i put the carrier back in is there anything special other than easing it in and using shitloads of bearing grease?
a couple light smacks with a rubber mallet too...
im not gonna torque the bearing retaining caps down yet, but i have them in and a lil more than hand tight with a lil locktite.
the shafts go in just fine.
i turned it freely before the shafts. it turns freely with the shafts. so it seems good to me, but this is my first time pulling a carrier out and throwing it back in bymyself so im wondering if im missing anything?
and one more question, one of the bearing retaining cap bolts somehow got some threads banged up during all of this, and i have grade bolts like 1/4" or an 1/8" shorter than the bearing retaining bolt, could i use this bolt? do i needed a stronger bolt than grade8, like are the bearing retaining bolts something stronger? would the 1/4" shorter bolt make problems too even with locktite?

one more thing. i have the bearing retaining caps on the correct sides. but i was naive and didnt mark em before i pulled em, so im not sure whats top from bottom, i know for sure on the right side, but not on the left. i noticed there is a little groove on one side of the inside of the bearing caps, is that supposed to face outward or inward? that would prob fix it

ok as for the bearing caps, theyre fine, i double checked numerous pics online if the caps, i hvae em right... so is grade 8 bolt a little shorter a acceptable replacement?

i would get a direct replacement bolt for the bearing retaining cap bolts....I would want them all exactly the same, not one stronger or weaker than the other...

The last Dana 44 I was into had stamps on the caps and housing indicating what bearing cap when where and top and bottom. It was a U and a sideways U stamped in them. Double check for an indication because if you have them wrong you probably will have big problems down the road.

Any grade 8 bolt will be fine as long as the length os ok!

blondejoncherokee said:

so first off, when i put the carrier back in is there anything special other than easing it in and using shitloads of bearing grease?
a couple light smacks with a rubber mallet too...
im not gonna torque the bearing retaining caps down yet, but i have them in and a lil more than hand tight with a lil locktite.

Click to expand...

Well if no shim or bearing settings changed when you pulled the carrier out then yes, you just need to carefully tap the chunk into the housing as even as you can get. Normally it would take a good bit of beating with a deadblow (or block of wood and sledge) if you have the proper carrier bearing preload but since this is a used axle that won't be the case.

Also, I would pull your bearing cap bolts back out one by one and re-locktite them. When you put them in "a lil more than hand tight" you allowed the locktite to set in that position. If you come back and torque the bolts to their proper value then that crusty locktite seal has been broken and the effectiveness is lost. Oh and do it right and get the correct replacement bolt.

ya, there are some stamps on the caps and housing, i noticed some "E" s, i know the exact install of the right one, and figured out the left finally. i just wanted to be lazy for once and feel good about it. i was at the yard 6 days last week pulling parts, im hoping that xj dana 44 is still there so i can pull parts from it again...

and ill reloctite it...thanks for all the info guys!