cj3 axle question

Thanks Nick, I have pulled the diff covers off both my d44 and 41.
The spacer looks good, at least it isn't discolored and there is not a ton of chunky iron in the housing.
There is a good amount of fine metal floating around in the 90wt that came out. Maybe it's the wheel bearings, since they got their grease thinned by the leaking gearlube. I'll take a close look there before disturbing the gear set.
BTW, the 5:38 ring gear for the 44 is much thicker that the 41's.
And another question: How much inboard/outboard play should there be at the axle/hub when shimmed correctly? I'm guessing a very minimal amount.

 

tapered axle bearing end play should be .001" to .006"
I have seen all shims and bearing adjustment done from one side only (left or right)
have also seen split between both sides
fwiw

 

I have seen a broken crosspin assembly in a D44 Powerloc caused *we believe* from shimming all from one side. Axle shaft butted against the crosspin (not really a pin but a piece of metal) and broke it in half. When the Jeep was driven the diff would not differentiate at all, would skid the outside tires around a corner like a spool. Pulled it apart and found the cracked piece. It was good before installation. I'd be careful about setting endplay all on one side.

 

Thanks guys, the shimming and what side issue I s'pose would all depend on how many shims you needed etc.
Mine came to me with shims on both sides, so I reckon it'd be prudent to stick with that.
Thanks for the spec JP.

 

Got into the axle deeper this weekend, found the wheel bearing on the drivers side all full of flakes of steel worn from the rollers/races. Bummer but definitely fixable.

The worst thing I found was that the hubs are cracked, right at the key way there's a crack at along one edge of the groove on each of them.

I have others from the d41 only they are not drilled for the brake drum retaining screws like the ones I was running.

How important do you guys figure the retaining screws are?
Can I just use the d41 hubs and relie on the lug studs and nuts to keep the drums in place?

The centering holes in the drums to the raised centers of the hubs match up fine.

Thanks in advance!