Setting up gears

I'm preparing to do a bench overhaul with ring and pinion setup on a HPD30 and an XJ D44. I'm aware this isn't the easiest thing to tackle, nor am I going to save much money on the first diff considering specialty tool requirements. That leads me to a few questions...

1. Which of the specialty tools (besides the obvious inch-lb torque wrench, dial indicator, calipers) are absolutely necessary and which are a luxury?
2. What gear manufacturers are to be avoided? I assume dana/spicer, yukon, and alloy or safe? Who else?
3. What master instal kit did you use? slinger and baffle included?
4. Did you remove and press your own bearings? What did you use? How heavy of a press was needed?
4b. Anyone use a HF 12 or 20 ton press with good results?
5. What retailers do you recommend?

tech articles:
Yukon
Pirate

Any other advice?

TIA, Law

I've used the HF 12 ton to press the carrier bearings and it worked fine. You will need a large bearing seperator and a screw or jaw puller to get the bearings off the carrier. Set up bearings for the carrier are also nice. HTH blaise
P.S. i used a gear set up DVD to learn and it was very helpful. Got it off ebay.

blaisetd said:

...i used a gear set up DVD to learn and it was very helpful. Got it off ebay.

Click to expand...

like this?
thanks

its not super hard. I just use an air/hydro press i have, but its like 40ton rated, you could also shim the outside of the carrier bearings but shimming inside makes a much cleaner job. A case spreader also make things much easier to get the carrier pre-load set up but it can be done without one.

i wish everyone posting gear setup threads took it as seriously as you do, kudos.

I used a 12ton press from pep boys, cost me about 150. Vice-grip dial indicator from ebay for about 30. Some mini hydrolic puller tool from ebay for about 100 to pull bearings. I went yukon for gears with master install kits. They included everything I needed. If this is your first time, I would go to your local store and get an extra set of bearings, just incase you mess one up in the process.

law.74 said:

like this?
thanks

Click to expand...

that's the one....

I got a 10 ton OTC puller and bearing splitter from ebay for about $70 years ago.
I got a snap on inch-lb torque wrench off ebay for less than $50 years ago.

You can make your own setup carrier bearings by honing out your old ones with
a set of 3 stone hones you pick up at an autoparts store. If you don't have setup bearings you will wish you did before you are done.

This is my list of tools I use. I guess you could do without #8 and #9 but I would not want to.

Tools for setting gears in a Dana 30 or Dana 44:
1) Magnetic base dial indicator with 0.001" grads
2) Brass drift to knock out inner pinion bearing race (to set pinion depth)
3) 10 ton bearing puller and splitter
4) inch-lb torque wrench with max torque indicator
5) Big plastic hammer
6) Large torque wrench or impact wrench to torque pinion nut
7) Socket set for carrier and cover bolts
8) (optional but recommended) carrier setup bearings. You can make your own from
some old ones.
9) Nice to have a race/seal driver kit
10) Dial calipers to measure the thickness of shims with

11) Gear marking grease. This usually comes with replacement bearing kits
12) Red locktite for ring bolts
13) I like to have spray cans of brake cleaner to clean out the pieces of
brass drift that invariably wind up in the case when you are done.
14) If you are doing a front diff you will likely need oil baffles and or
slingers for the pinion shim stack. Knocking out the inner pinion race
always destroys the oil baffle (at least for me).
15) Pinion and carrier shims. Some diffs use a crush sleeve.

Thank you for the replies... much appreciated.

head over to the Dana website and read their gear setup documents. i don't have time to dig it up, but i always found their explanations easy to follow.

someone else stated it, and i agree, it is good to see the correct approach to this, instead of "please check my pattern, i have no idea what I am doing"

http://www2.dana.com/expertforms/demenu.aspx?prod=AXL

here is a link for dana info