D44 rebuild

So the housing is gutted and I have a platinum torque rebuild kit as well as a lockright. Do I dare tackle setting up a ring and pinion? This is the first thing to do after wiping off 20 yrs of dust, really need to be able to shuffle around the garage and I get tired of using a furniture dolly under the rear. Thoughts?

 

I do not know what a "Platinum Torque" rebuild kit is, but if you are not changing the differential case or the gears, you probably will not need to change any shims on your ring and pinion. Of course it doesn't hurt to double check the backlash, and do a pattern test to make sure it is still OK.

 

:iagree: and if you can get the old bearings off in one piece then make them slip fit with a die grinder so you can change the carrier shims easier to get the proper backlash before pressing the new carrier bearings on!

 

Before you gutted the diff you should have measured the backlash on the R&P. If you are not changing the R&P, theoretically you can install the new bearings with the old shim packs or use new shims to build new shim packs of equal thickness to the old ones. But, you need to set the backlash to the same tolerance as it was before. That being said, I've set up 2 D30's with new gears and bearings, but I don't think I'd set up a rear. The rear is in use all the time, not just when offroad like a front diff. If you have no prior experience with this type of work, I'd say take it to someone who does, pay the money and be happy. In the long run you'll be glad you did.

 

OK so dug out the ring and pinion and carrier ( brief panic as I could not find it for awhile). The old bearings are intact along with the shims. I did not mark the bearing caps when I disassembled ( teenagers!) but I think it will live. May give this a go. In the trailer I found a forgotten D44 carrier with factory power lock ( it was out of a Wagoneer) but I'd need a spacer for the ring gear to make it work. So I'll stick with the lock right. Thanks, Richard

 

Platinum torque rebuild kits come from National Drivetrain.Seem's like good quality, we'll see.

 

IMO if you didn't mark the caps so they can go back on exactly the same you should get the housing and caps align bored to reestablish proper alignment. They are not interchangeable from side to side or which end goes up or down.

 

If you look at the bearing caps they will have a letter stamped on them. This goes for Dana/Spicer diffs only.

One side will have the letter vertical. If you look on the housing where the cover goes there will be the same letter in the same orientation in close to the same location. That will tell you which way and which side the journal cap goes on. The other side will have the letter horizontal and the letter on the cap will also. This should be helpful to determine which cap goes on which side and in which orienatation. Nick

 

Great info, nickmil. New to me.

 

gear setup isn't too challenging, you just need the tools and some patience. there's a good right-up of it on pirate4x4 if you are interested in trying it yourself.

i'd say good luck and i'm pretty confident you can tackle it yourself.

- evan