What did you do in the garage / driveway today?
- Thread starter DOWNS
- Start date
Had my first shot at regearing a rear end. I have a 95’ Sahara that’s getting a TJ Dana 44. That tiny packet of marking compound that came with the gears turned out to be plenty. How did it go? Great for the first time and 9 hours in the driveway on a hot Houston summer day. Is ready to go in my Jeep? Heck no. My pattern looks good but I need to revisit the pinion preload (15-20in lbs feels really tight and kinda rough) and the backlash. Close enough was good enough at the end of the day but not now that I’ve had a chance to sleep on it. The spare parts (pinion seal and nut, etc) are on order and we’ll give it another crack in few weeks.
Good on you for attempting the work yourself. I had the same learning experience recently and it was not fun at all, but I got it done. Seems to run good but very few miles so far and none of them high speed.
I would probably try to rework the preload shims to add 0.001 if possible. With the HP30 I of course had to shim the preload on that one and it took me a while to get it. I kept landing on 10 in/lb or 20 in/lb. Bearings prefer less and while the spec is 20-40, that is very high, so I chose the 10. It’s something like 10-12 really. Feels great. Still super stable despite being lower than spec and definitely has plenty resistance to turn as well.