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Dana 30 spider gears

B

bdavid

NAXJA Forum User
Location
USA
I have a dana 30 hp for a while i have had a grinding noise I thought it was my tires. I put my front drive shaft back in and put it in 4hi and it makes a loud grinding noise and you can feel it. When you take it out of 4hi it is not bad just a small grinding noise almost like you mud tires would make. I pulled my diff cover and the fluid looks like it is silver colored, I spun the carrier and have found no broken teeth But the spider gears look to be very worn it seem like the spider gears are wearing very odd.

So do you think this could be the odd noise and vibes i have been having? I have replaced the axle u-joints, both hubs are pretty new and rotated the tires. The drive shaft has been changed also.

What do good spider gears look like? wear pattern things like that.
 
Your gears should not be chipped up orfrsh metal look in any way. If you replaced all that you say then id say your spiders/dif is going
 
did you mean fresh metal look? the gears are shinny bright metal on the contact area and seem to be worn
 
I was thinking the same thing. I doesnt matter if you are going straight or turning so that to me would be a bearing.. the one thing that has got me is the noise gets louder when you have it in 4hi-4lo and you are giving it gas ( under acceleration) Only when it is in 4wheel drive though
 
the pinion bearing does not leak or have any play.
how would i check the carrier bearings with it in the axle?
It looks like water might have gotten in the diff not sure but the fluid was milky and silver....
 
bdavid said:
the pinion bearing does not leak or have any play.
how would i check the carrier bearings with it in the axle?
It looks like water might have gotten in the diff not sure but the fluid was milky and silver....
Click to expand...

not really any way to check carrier bearings except to pull the carrier out, which is a bit of a PITA, but not much choice when it has come down to that
 
Pulling the carrier our is not as tough as pepole say, i can swap it out in about a half hour, hardest part is some need pryed out of the housing. Was the driveshaft you bought new or used? Check for up and down play in the yoke? Milky and silver fluid is not a good sign at best it should be dark only.
 
The shaft is used i am going to switch the shafts from front to rear and see what happens, from what i can tell it seems to be more than just a drive shaft.....I am really hope it is not my t-case the jeep only has 9000 miles and the t-case is full so it has not been run dry.......

Thanks for your info please keep it coming the more suggestion the better.
 
Update i took the front shaft out again and took it for a drive,put it in 4hi-4lo and no noise?????????? So trade the front for back shafts and take it for another ride with new fluid and the back shaft in the front the noise has quited down quit a bit..


this is what i think the t-case is OK
The front diff has a bearing bad some were....
 
most likely a pinion bearing, they are pretty small in the 30, or could be the carrier bearings, but my bet would be on one of the pinion bearings
 
that would be my bet. I think that maybe some water got in and washed out the bearings. Seems to be making the most noise when it is under a load.

The millage is 90000 miles not 9000 my bad
 
Last edited:
The pinion does not have any play in it . The seal does not leak.

But there was a lot of shavings in the carrier looks like from the spider gears or from the bearings..
 
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