Binding Gears in Dana 30

[FiveNdime]

I'm bummed to hear about all the bad luck you've been having. I was hoping the front would go easier for you.

Here's the plan though:
- Tuesday: Have the vendor overnight a new gear set to you, because you got wheeling to do
- Wednesday: Install new correct gear set
- Thursday: Break in
- Friday: Leave for Evans, and realize it all was worth it

Done! Well most of it. I am having a new set sent to me tomorrow but I had to pay for them because in order for them to send me a new set or give me my money back Nitro Gear needs to see them and verify there bad. They usually take 3 days for that and I have not the time. IF they are bad then the dealer I bought them from will send me my money back. I head for Dune Fest early next week and have to break them in for that. My guess is no wheeling at Evans for me this time cause the dingle berries got a set of gears wrong. Go figure. At least I will have them for Dune Fest! Dustin, bad luck is an understatement. Did you read my XJ build thread on Pistons Wild forum? That has all the tidbits of info.

 

[NW-ZJ-SCOTT]

Done! Well most of it. I am having a new set sent to me tomorrow but I had to pay for them because in order for them to send me a new set or give me my money back Nitro Gear needs to see them and verify there bad. They usually take 3 days for that and I have not the time. IF they are bad then the dealer I bought them from will send me my money back. I head for Dune Fest early next week and have to break them in for that. My guess is no wheeling at Evans for me this time cause the dingle berries got a set of gears wrong. Go figure. At least I will have them for Dune Fest! Dustin, bad luck is an understatement. Did you read my XJ build thread on Pistons Wild forum? That has all the tidbits of info.

Your going to dune fest too? I took this pic last week...

 

[jeeperjohn]

Done! Well most of it. I am having a new set sent to me tomorrow but I had to pay for them because in order for them to send me a new set or give me my money back Nitro Gear needs to see them and verify there bad. They usually take 3 days for that and I have not the time. IF they are bad then the dealer I bought them from will send me my money back. I head for Dune Fest early next week and have to break them in for that. My guess is no wheeling at Evans for me this time cause the dingle berries got a set of gears wrong. Go figure. At least I will have them for Dune Fest! Dustin, bad luck is an understatement. Did you read my XJ build thread on Pistons Wild forum? That has all the tidbits of info.

Make sure you put a super strong magnet (like the kind that comes out of a computer hard drive) on the inside of the diff cover to catch wear material. This will greatly extend the life of your bearings.

 

[FiveNdime]

Yep Going to Dune Fest!!!! I have been looking for a good magnet for both ends....thanks for the tip!

I got my new set of USA Standard gears today. lets see if those are good and if I can get this mess done! Wish me luck as I head out into the shop!

 

[kastein]

Check United Nuclear for magnets, if you don't have an old computer hard drive or two around to pillage for parts. You'll find the magnets if you pry the top cover plate off, they will be in between two rather shiny pieces of nickel plated steel in one of the corners nearest the data/power connectors on most modern (less than 15 years old) drives.

EDIT: http://unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=70_71

These ones in particular would be a pretty good choice - http://unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=70_71&products_id=241
Or these - http://unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=70_71&products_id=250

(depending on how much space you have in there - and keep them far away from where the ring gear / carrier will come close to them, you don't want them bridging to it or detaching from the housing and latching onto the ring gear)

 

[FiveNdime]

YEAH!

The new gears are perfect, no binding at all, and the backlash variance in 4 spots around the ring gear is only .002" which is much much better. Pinion pre-load was set to 11 inch lbs. and the backlash set between .007 and .009 which is dead in the middle of where I need it to be. So now I will take a pattern to see if my pinion depth guess was correct.

 

[jeeperjohn]

YEAH!

The new gears are perfect, no binding at all, and the backlash variance in 4 spots around the ring gear is only .002" which is much much better. Pinion pre-load was set to 11 inch lbs. and the backlash set between .007 and .009 which is dead in the middle of where I need it to be. So now I will take a pattern to see if my pinion depth guess was correct.

Good to hear dude!

 

[FiveNdime]

I figured I might as well finish my install with the results on this thread. I put it all back in today, pressed the new bearings on the pinion and bam.....pinion is way too deep. New bearings almost always do this but dang this is way out. So I pulled the bearing and swapped out the .019" for a .015" so we'll see how that goes tomorrow. I'm hoping that's not too much to take out but only time will tell. I'll post up my pattern or results tomorrow.

 

[FiveNdime]

Its DONE!!! I drove it around today to break it in a bit. Put 30+ miles on it and did allot of sitting around and talking to kill time while they cooled down, put it this way it took 4 hours to drive that many miles LOL.

Here is the pattern I ended up with.

Drive Side

Coast Side....sorry for the bad pic

Final install

 

[jeeperjohn]

Nice pattern dude! Good work.

 

[RCP Phx]

Why did you mount the airline there,thats not the recommended location?

 

[FiveNdime]

Why did you mount the airline there,thats not the recommended location?

Good Eye.

I had no choice. I have an Iron Rock LA lift. The bracket that holds the upper part of my link to the upper mount on the D30 housing is about 4 times as wide, thus cutting all and any of my room to put an air line anywhere. So I had to drill and tap at an angle. Mind you the 4.88 gears cut out all the room I have up top as well. It works and its well out of the way of anything so we will see.

 

[FiveNdime]

I also wanted to give a shot out to RWK Haus Supply a vendor on here that I bought the bad gears from. He is just a supplier of the gears. He took it on his part to get me taken care of asap. Robert the owner sent me a new set of better gears while I ship the bad ones back. He went above and beyond to help a customer out. Now he has a loyal customer who would recommend him to anyone for there axle needs. He gives a good :: member discount and ships fast, and you can always get a hold of him or he will call you back if not. That's how you run a business!