what you guys think? dana 30 woes

[blondejoncherokee]

so i had the gears done recently on the front 30. wheeled it in reno, the con, slickrock, boards crossing. only 4 those runs on the thing since may when the axle got swapped in the night before the first reno run. right when the gears where done.

went out there tonight to check it out tonight. the pinion yoke had in/out play. lots of it. i guess my front dana 30 really likes variable backlash setting, letting itself chose thebacklash as it wishes glad i caught it now.


really?
already. the last time took about 5 years for this to happen, not a few months.

checked the pinion nut, hand tight. Great. very bad sign.
pop the cover. looks like the gear oil got replaced with silver anti sieze. Gear oil is silver in color. no chunks missing off the ring and pinion. locker looks good.

i feel like the pinion nut not being torqued properly (250 ft lbs right?) made the nut come loose, gave the pinion some play, and probably toasted the pinion bearings, thus the silver.

whats your guess?

im just not stoked at all right now.

maybe ill get lucky, throw a pipe wrench on the yoke, and crank the nut down like crazy, it will get me by for a while. seems like its already on the outs.

i wonder if its worth hitting fordyce next weekend on 37s on this 30 without completely replacing the pinion bearings.

i dunno the gears are still pretty new. only like 1500 miles on them max. maybe only a 1000. although the slop in the pinion cant be the best.

 

[rockclimber]

how silver is the oil, the first 500 miles of a gear setup will make the oil pretty silver just from the break in.


if you plan on keeping the 30 long term, get yourself a Rufstuff cover, sleeve the housing, and run a truss. that should help with the housing flex.

other than that, I'd say torque the nut down, change the fuild and see if it makes any noise. drive a couple hundred miles and see if you are still getting flakes in the oil.

 

[blondejoncherokee]

i already have a ruffstuff cover, a full truss , sleeved tubes, knuckle gussets, chromos, all new brakes, brand new gears, carrier, lockright, HD yoke. this 30 is pretty built . im under 900 miles on this diff, but over 500. ill try to get away with torquing the pinion but for now and fresh gear oil.

the in n out play would bother me more if the pinion nit wasnt hand tight, but that thing needs to be at 210 ft pounds, so ill give that a shot.

 

[Alex E]

Hard to say why it came loose. When the gears where done did you use a new install kit or the old stuff? One thing I would check, if you ever have the carrier out, is where the large bearing on the pinion sits in the axle housing. Make sure the housing isn't oblong or the bearing race has poor fitment. That would make it hard to set up properly or make the install whacky. Although unlikely, I've seen a bad housing once or twice.

 

[Alex E]

The other thing is, if I remember correctly, the D30 has a crush sleeve so I'd check that. Those are harder then hell to collapse initially and then shortly after they aren't hard to over collapse, making the pre load lose.

But if your front axle just uses shims for pre load then torque the pinion nut OR if it still has a crush sleeve then only set rotating torque, if you actually torque it to a spec I assure you it will be way to tight.

Also, I've seen crush sleeves crack, thus losing pre load again.

 

[CAJJ93XJ]

No crush sleeve on a turdy. Who did your gears Jon? Why not just take it in and see what they have to say. Our guess is as good as yours

 

[blondejoncherokee]

good call on that guys. yah ill have my buddy who set them check it out.

 

[blondejoncherokee]

alright we got it figured out .
gears looked fine. bearings looked good.
too much shim on the pinion. rob thinks the races may not have driven in all the way perhaps. He said bearings and gears look great. pulled out some shims, one at a time, until it tightened back up. now all i need is a new pinion nut and new pinion seal and im good to go.

 

[kcjeep6]

I had mine come loose the first run after I had someone else install my gears, they had striped the nut. My ARB looks like someone was cutting gear teeth in it. I drained the oil, washed the diff out with brake clean, chased the pinion thread and installed a new nut with a torque wrench. It has been good for 6 years, so I say wash it, install a new nut and slap the cover on, once you get that done wheel the heck out of it! Don’t forget to put oil in it.

 

[blondejoncherokee]

yah we re shimmed the pinion and got it all tight again,. i got a new pinion nut and new pinion seal today too on my lunch. I'm gonna torque it down after work and call it good.

 

[GREATWHITEJEEP]

Jon glad you got it figured out . I know we haven't officilly met or hung out but no one gets stranded if your wheling with me . Got your back at Fordyce. Ill have tow rig and trailer nearby . worse case somebody brakes . My Jeep drives to Sac and we can tow whomever on the trailer. Rich

 

[GREATWHITEJEEP]

damm it i hate typing on a touch screen.

 

[blondejoncherokee]

Rich that is awesome. Ill be throwing the axle back together tonight.