Dana 27 & 44 Rebuild

While doing almost all of the rebuild on my '55 CJ5 myself, I decided to send my Dana 27 and Dana 44 off to the shop for a rebuild. I just got my estimate back and it came to $3,500. Am I crazy for thinking this number is high? They're quoting for replacing everything except the shafts. Any advice on what to do here?

 

They are replacing the carrier? You changing gears? Most gears you would use in a early 5 wouldn't require moving past a carrier break.

Expensive is relative to the area.

 

My local Jeep guy charged me 250$ for the rear Dana 44. I provided all the seals and bearings.

 

$250 is prolly the cheapest price I've heard for a lash up.

For $3500, you're close to getting custom setups done. That does sound expensive to me, but I've heard some 'normal' prices for random stuff in TX that were well more than I would expect.

Tons of guys are hesitant to do axles, but they really aren't that bad.

 

Yeah sorry that 250$ was just replacing bearings and seals

 

Unfortunately to go through and replace everything and completely rebuild a set of axles at shop rates, which are about $100 an hour here it is expensive. Minimum wage here is $11.50 an hour and $15 in the big city.
For that EVERYTHING but the housings would have to be new. I say all the time that it is really easy to put $10,000 into a Jeep that is only worth $2000.

 

FWIW When I got my cj about 3 years ago found the front knuckle seals all warped and loosing grease pudding. Cost me 1200 - 1400 to go through the front 27.

 

The 27 will cost more than a 30 cuz it's not as common and the outers are more labor intensive to fix.

 

That just outer bearing and seals or carrier/pinion bearings and races? $250 for just outer work sounds kinda high but not too far off the map. $250 for a lash up sounds cheap.

 

Its on the upper end but I wouldn't have batted an eye at 3k. The 27 with its kingpin bearings, shimming is eating a lot of labor.

 

all bearings and seals in the axle

 

So I told the shop to box my parts up and I'll be picking them up tonight. I spoke with a shop that specializes in flat fenders; told them what the other shop said, and he's positive the rebuild shouldn't be more than $1,500 total; most likely less. They're going to that shop sometime this week to get a 2nd opinion. If I can't get this shop to do it, I'll be looking at You-tube videos and trying it out myself.

 

have you drove the jeep before removing axles
did you really think that both needed a complete rebuild
oil leaks or noise



this is something you just wanted to do

 

Just make sure you don't get axles stuffed with worthless omix parts. You'll be worse off. To add to Twin 2 beyond wheel bearings and seals internals are rarely worn out unless they got waterlogged for a significant period.

 

Sounds like a lot to me. I would think 2000-2500 on the outside. And that's with EVERYTHING being replaced with top quality parts and not junk. New R&P, case (this what the ring gear bolts to......the cast "pumpkin" is the carrier), all new bearings, seals, etc., etc. However, I can see no reason to replace the case, axle shafts or ring and pinion unless there is a known issue or you are changing ratios.

I paid 300 for a shop to remove old and install new carrier bearings (supplied by me) and set up the ring and pinion on my 27. The rest I did myself. Not difficult.

The Dana axles are more difficult to set up because of how they are shimmed. More time consuming as the shims are o the inside of the bearing, requiring removal of the bearing each time you adjust the shim pack. "Set up bearings" are often used to make it easier to do but, it's still more time consuming than other brands of axles.

 

The Jeep is about 4 months old to me. Wasn't running when I bought it. $400 lump of parts. I'm a glutton for punishment so I'm doing a frame up rebuild. I took the covers off the axles and here's what I saw:



Dana 27 is coated in burnt oil.

 

Here's a couple pics of the spiders and rings

 

My ring and pinions are 5.38 ratio. I was thinking of going to 4.88 if both really do need replacing. Suggestions? Both carriers are in good condition; not going to be replaced.

 

Only Omix part I've bought for the jeep is the shifter pivot pin on my transfer case. I had a $10 amazon credit and the pin was $6.50... I've heard enough bad reviews to stay away from Omix as much as possible.