Installing axles on a 10 spline Dana 44 after locker install

[Fireball]

That parts catalog pictures appears to be backwards. The bearing should be on the axle with the small part of the cone facing out and the backing plate/shims should be holding the race in. Here's multiple diagrams from the service manual:

From my old '69:

As to your original question, I think you were asking if you could just leave the hubs on the axles, undo the retaining nuts and pull the axles out far enough to swap in the locker.

As long as you have access to the retainer nuts with your disk setup, I don't see why you couldn't do that. The hub would only need to come off the axle if you needed to replace the bearing. Getting the bearing race, shims, caliper bracket, gaskets, and all that stuff lined back up again might be a bit of an effort with limited access, but is probably doable.

 

[cj2atruck]

That parts catalog pictures appears to be backwards. The bearing should be on the axle with the small part of the cone facing out and the backing plate/shims should be holding the race in. Here's multiple diagrams from the service manual:

From my old '69:

As to your original question, I think you were asking if you could just leave the hubs on the axles, undo the retaining nuts and pull the axles out far enough to swap in the locker.

As long as you have access to the retainer nuts with your disk setup, I don't see why you couldn't do that. The hub would only need to come off the axle if you needed to replace the bearing. Getting the bearing race, shims, caliper bracket, gaskets, and all that stuff lined back up again might be a bit of an effort with limited access, but is probably doable.

Thanks Fireball, you just saved me a ton of time and headaches!!!

 

[Howard Eisenhauer]

OK, so I’m staring at the picture and my bearing is pressed onto the shaft facing towards the backing plate, not towards the differential as mine are installed.

By Golly, the picture has them backwards. :O The cup is on the outside and holds the axle shaft into the tube.

 

[Oldpappy]

Maybe it was an incorrect picture like that which caused someone to install things backwards in the Jeep you mentioned.

 

[Howard Eisenhauer]

Could be. :?

 

[duffer]

Just my opinion, but swapping out the 10 spline shafts for the 19 spline versions is very simple, especially so if also swapping for a "locker" and relatively cheap. You can probably find good used 19 spline axle shafts for less than $50. That conversion probably increases the strength by 30%. The milled 10 spline shafts are small fragmentation hand grenades waiting to be detonated. Kaiser went to the 19 spline involute shafts when the Powr-Lok became available for a very good reason. I'm another that does most wheeling without anything registering on the speedometer but that didn't prevent a 10 spline explosion.

I think the stock 19 spline shafts are actually stronger than Herm's 30 spline full float shafts. Certainly not anywhere near as strong as Moser or Dutchman 30 spline versions which aren't all that expensive.

 

[Norcal69]

Rubicon on 10 spine key/tapered shafts is just a bad idea in general.
Really hampers the group when someone has to get towed through the trail..... Rob looked like a bobber on a fishing line last year.

 

[Fireball]

The milled 10 spline shafts are small fragmentation hand grenades waiting to be detonated. Kaiser went to the 19 spline involute shafts when the Powr-Lok became available for a very good reason.

Rubicon on 10 spine key/tapered shafts is just a bad idea in general.

Here's one of the 10 spline shafts out of my old CJ-2A. You see the radial cracks moving inward from each of the splines before it snapped:

Whenever I get around to putting the 30 spline axles/spindles on the back of the DJ-3A, I'll have an extra Herm 19 spline inner, 27 spline outer full float kit available for fairly cheap.

With the Herm kit, I would buy a couple spare shafts to have in the Jeep though. They are known to break under abuse at the neck-down behind the outer splines. It's sort of a fusible link that puts the break where it's easy to replace the axle instead of having to pound a stub out of the carrier on the trail. It sounds like they are a little too fusible though:

One convenience about going from 10 to 19 splines is that it's just a spider gear or lunchbox locker swap and you don't have to do any gear setup like you need to do when going up to 30 spline. The 30 spline carrier bearings have a larger !D to accommodate the larger shafts. That means a new case and bearings, which means gear setup (minus the pinion depth).

 

[timgr]

... Kaiser went to the 19 spline involute shafts when the Powr-Lok became available for a very good reason. ...

Just out of interest...
Involute as in an involute curve?
I presume the shape of the base of the spline changes to the curve, eliminating the sharp corner?
The rectangular corner of the spline bottom creates a stress riser emanating from the corner and promoting cracks?

 

[duffer]

Again, stress risers from the root of every spline. A whole inch of that shaft disappeared and ended up as approximately 1/8" cubic debris. Fireball's 19 spline full float would be a huge improvement. I ran that axle configuration behind the 350 & 381 in my 3B for 4 decades with nary a single problem with both 5.38 and 4.10 gearing and Powr-Lok/Detroit. It is currently sitting in the shop and will likely end up under New Blue but that is going to require another (4.88) gear swap.

 

[duffer]

Just out of interest...
Involute as in an involute curve?
I presume the shape of the base of the spline changes to the curve, eliminating the sharp corner?
The rectangular corner of the spline bottom creates a stress riser emanating from the corner and promoting cracks?

Yes to all.

 

[Norcal69]

Not all that different from when I broke a 30 spline shaft on the Rubicon several years ago.
Driving 1/2 the trail with the spinning axle shaft.... milled the broken spline section off so clean it looked like it had been turned on a lathe.

 

[cj2atruck]

With everyone abandoning their 10 spline setup, sounds like there should be a lot of 10 spline axles available. Anyone have a set of those $50 10 spline axles available that I can carry as spares? Same for the front Dana 25, would like to have a set of spare axles if I can find them that are not too expensive.

 

[Howard Eisenhauer]

With everyone abandoning their 10 spline setup, sounds like there should be a lot of 10 spline axles available. Anyone have a set of those $50 10 spline axles available that I can carry as spares? Same for the front Dana 25, would like to have a set of spare axles if I can find them that are not too expensive.

Put an ad up in the classifieds, I think there was a set on there not too long ago.

 

[Jw60]

Most folks replace them after the short side breaks. And if it doesn't twist off at the splines the other failure point is a lot worse.

https://cj3b.info/Tech/Axles.html