Powerlok spline change

A friend has offerd me an old 19 spline powerlok. Can I change it to 30 spline by just changing the side gears? Some where I read that the newer 1-piece side gears will not work with older powerloks that had the separate side gear and ring. The article was a little vague. Is this true?

 

I keep getting told that it won't work and yet I have done this since way back in 1971. And, then I looked at the two powerlocks at home and one is 19 spline and the other is 30. And I can not see any difference between the two execept for the spline count. If somebody has a different opine, please explain why they won't work?

 

i have a 27 spline dana 44 powerlock with 2 piece gears. i swapped all the internal guts into the case from a 30 spline, 1 peice setup with no problems. when i had the 2 units apart, there was no reason i could see why swapping a 2 peice gear for a 1 peice gear would be a problem.

after putting more thought into the design change, i concluded (perhaps incorrectly) that the reason they went to the 1 piece was to ease axle shaft installation. with the 2 peice design the splines need to be aligned for the shafts to engage properly. the 1 piece design eliminates this alignment issue.

i also noticed the cross shafts for the 27 spline setup (which had tapered axle shafts) had a center hole in each cross shaft for a "button" to fit in which was necesary to maintain bearing preload on the tapered axles, as the 2 axle shafts depended on each other for this preload.
the cross shafts on the 30 spline setup where not centered drilled (and thus stronger) because it came out of an axle with flanged axle shafts, thus no "button" was necesary.

just some observations i've made......

 

Thanks for your replies. I've never heard of a 27 spline 44. What did it come out of?

 

Jeepster Commando.
You can interchange the 19 and 30 and 27 spline side gears no problem. Done it lots of times as have the other people on here. The reason they went to one piece side gears is the two piece work against the axle shaft splines and wear them out. I've seen this on many axle shafts with a two piece side gear power lock.
One thing you have to watch out for is if you use a new aftermarket side gear kit the angle is different on the spider gears and the clutches are slightly different which means you have to buy the whole kit with clutches and spider and side gears. They won't interchange with the stock Spicer stuff but they will work in the case. If you just want to change the side gears to 30 spline either you will need a whole aftermarket kit or if you get lucky you may find some NOS or good used 30 spline side gears (getting hard to find though). Nickmil

 

ah ha.... this makes sense also.

 

I never could figure out the side gears and ring being 2 separate pieces. I guess it had to do with the machining processes available at the time.