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Fabbing a ring gear spacer ring?

bretto

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Orem,Utah
I got an ARB for a Dana 30 and I am moving up to 4.10's but the carrier break is 3.73. Can a ring gear spacer be made to take up the 1/8" difference so I can use it or is that just a no no. No thick gears for a D30 4.10.
Brett
 
bretto said:
I got an ARB for a Dana 30 and I am moving up to 4.10's but the carrier break is 3.73. Can a ring gear spacer be made to take up the 1/8" difference so I can use it or is that just a no no. No thick gears for a D30 4.10.
Brett


Given the problems the 30 already has with loosening of bolts under torque loads, this is a very bad idea. The shear loads on the bolts is very high when you add an unsupported section of spacer.

Gears are cheap. Breaking sucks.

CRASH
 
That spacer that you make beter be percise to about a .001/.002 of an inch MAX. It needs to be perfect or your final contact patteren will never come out right.
 
Its for sale.
 
ok, opening this idea back up. I know everybody said ring gear spacer are bad, but they run them on D60 and just about every GM and chryco rearend in the hotrod world, so why can they be bad. I got a good deal on a power loc for my Dana 30, the only problem is its for 3.54 and high ratios, and I am already running 4.56's, hence the need for the spacer. I called a bunch of places and can get the housing for the 3.73 and lower ratios for ~$300 buck, not much of a good deal anymore.

So the plan, I have found some precision ground .125" tool steel here at work approximate 8" sq. Was told the offset between the two cases is .130", so chucking up the piece and making it round is first on the agenda. Then followed by drilling the bolt pattern. I figure if I use a very tight tolerance drill bit, to the bolts and take my time, I should have a pretty dead nut spacer. I should be able to make up the .005" difference between the two spacings with shims on the carrier bearings during gear setup.

This axle doesn't spin all the time, have MM hub kit and at most it might see 40mph in 4x4 for very short blasts. I thought this would be a great diff to try out, its adjustable and can be rebuilt to your liking, possibly of having summer/rock/tight and winter/snow/loose set-ups to go with the 242 t/c I have.

Will post pics as they develop........in the planning stages right now.
 
CartsXJ said:
ok, opening this idea back up. I know everybody said ring gear spacer are bad, but they run them on D60 and just about every GM and chryco rearend in the hotrod world, so why can they be bad. I got a good deal on a power loc for my Dana 30, the only problem is its for 3.54 and high ratios, and I am already running 4.56's, hence the need for the spacer. I called a bunch of places and can get the housing for the 3.73 and lower ratios for ~$300 buck, not much of a good deal anymore.

So the plan, I have found some precision ground .125" tool steel here at work approximate 8" sq. Was told the offset between the two cases is .130", so chucking up the piece and making it round is first on the agenda. Then followed by drilling the bolt pattern. I figure if I use a very tight tolerance drill bit, to the bolts and take my time, I should have a pretty dead nut spacer. I should be able to make up the .005" difference between the two spacings with shims on the carrier bearings during gear setup.

This axle doesn't spin all the time, have MM hub kit and at most it might see 40mph in 4x4 for very short blasts. I thought this would be a great diff to try out, its adjustable and can be rebuilt to your liking, possibly of having summer/rock/tight and winter/snow/loose set-ups to go with the 242 t/c I have.

Will post pics as they develop........in the planning stages right now.

there is a notion of saving cash by putting a lot of time into things...

Is the time that you are talking about and the risk of having this happen:
img_4707.jpg

Dana 30 4.56 ring gear with ARB. Ring gear bolts backed out, Bloose blew his R+P on day one of a 3 day wheeling weekend...

Is all that worth saving the few $$ by buying an USED Limited Slip?

If you are an open carrier right now - throw an aussie locker in there for $200 and call it good.
 
XJ_ranger said:
there is a notion of saving cash by putting a lot of time into things...

Is the time that you are talking about and the risk of having this happen:
img_4707.jpg

Dana 30 4.56 ring gear with ARB. Ring gear bolts backed out, Bloose blew his R+P on day one of a 3 day wheeling weekend...

Is all that worth saving the few $$ by buying an USED Limited Slip?

If you are an open carrier right now - throw an aussie locker in there for $200 and call it good.


so he did have a rign gear spacer? Did he locktight and torque everything to spec? Why haven't I heard or seen anything like that related to the street scene, where ring gear spacer are used all the time?
 
Most hot rods are using much larger diffs than a D30. Gear deflection and housing flex are problem areas with a D30, and the spacer will just make matters worse.

Randy's R&P told me they had a spacer available for a D60 application, but didn't reccomend it...just for example.
 
bobnoxious said:
Most hot rods are using much larger diffs than a D30. Gear deflection and housing flex are problem areas with a D30, and the spacer will just make matters worse.

Randy's R&P told me they had a spacer available for a D60 application, but didn't reccomend it...just for example.


Well I have a Bluetorch diff cover, so that probably strengthed the housing up a little. I just can't see why if you tolerance right it would be worse than a regular gear set in there. Hell, high temp epoxy the spacer to the carrier, or drill and tap it to the carrier offset of the ring gear bolts. Come awn guys use your imagination, HA.
 
CartsXJ said:
Well I have a Bluetorch diff cover, so that probably strengthed the housing up a little. I just can't see why if you tolerance right it would be worse than a regular gear set in there. Hell, high temp epoxy the spacer to the carrier, or drill and tap it to the carrier offset of the ring gear bolts. Come awn guys use your imagination, HA.

Let us know how it turns out:)
 
How's that ole sayin' go....sumthin 'bout gittin' a horse to drink...hope one of his buddies wheels a rollback.
 
CartsXJ said:
so he did have a rign gear spacer? Did he locktight and torque everything to spec? Why haven't I heard or seen anything like that related to the street scene, where ring gear spacer are used all the time?

Was originally torqued to spec but apparently never got the Locktite :(

You have an idea give it a shot. Is it a good idea? I guess you won't know till you try it. Breaking a RG on the trail does suck though.

B-loose
 
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