Jk moneypit

Swapped to 4.56 gears in my wife's jeep after putting a 6" lift and 37's and having problems with the rear dana 44. All new bearings, new seals, new dif fluid. Torqued the pinion to 25 lb. preload and installed the carrier, checked to make sure it tracked in the middle and reused old shims. Everything seemed good and took it for a test drive. After a few miles it started to squeal like a pig. Dif housing was hot. Brought it back home jacked it up and sounded like it was coming from the pinion.
Took it back apart and retorqued it to 15 lbs. preload and reassembled with the same problem. Reshimmed it and tried again with same problem.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks from the doghouse.

ronjenx

Can you post some pictures of the ring gear contact pattern?
What was your final torque on the pinion nut?
What was your final torque to rotate the pinion before carrier installation?

Jk moneypit

I don't have any pics. It was tracking just outside dead center on the ring gear. According to the insallation pic that came with the gear set it wad ok. After tearing it apart I retorqued it to 15lbs preload on a new nut but the old crush sleeve.
apparently there is considerable friction coming from somewhere.

ronjenx

How much torque did it take to rotate the pinion after you set the preload?

resharp001

sounds primarily like pinion bearings to me. did you completely disassemble and inspect those or simply remove the nut and put it back on? Stating the obvious here, but talking inch-lbs even though you've only referred to as "lbs".

BLK HOLE

Did you set backlash and check pattern? If you haven't done this multiple times yourself it isn't a good candidate for a driveway job.

Also, 4.56's on a JK with 37s will be something you'll regret. 5.13s is really best. (corrected a small mistake for you Blkhole)

Junkyard junkie

I think what happed is (and just guessing) that you mistook the pinion preload as pinion nut torque. Pinion preload is 20-30 inch lbs. And with a new crush sleeve, it can take several hundred foot lbs of pinion nut torque to achieve that. Also there's no "tracked in the middle" adjustment to be made in a differential.

ronjenx

I tried to get the OP to address those points, but wouldn't give any more information.

Sixty4x4

Let it go folks - we are not a repair service like many signing on as first timers think. Seems to be a lot lately!

Junkyard junkie

Guess by now the Jeep is in a shop and he's back in the doghouse.