Got an empty axle I'm regearing. It's a Dana 30 with the stock carrier. Putting 4.88s in it. Anyone know a good shim thickness to start with for the pinion and each side of the carrier?

 

Anyone

 

What's the marking on the end of the pinion gear?

For carrier shims, Measure the housing opening with a caliper, then measure the carrier width with bearing races installed. Minus carrier from housing width for total shims.

 

That's a good idea, but I only have a micrometer and no caliper. I ended up just packing enough shims in until it was tight yet didn't preload the bearings at all. Is there usually a marking on the pinion to give a starting thickness?

 

The last D30 I did had the shim value etched on the end of the pinion gear.

Chuck .. Did you reuse the shims from your original pinion on your new pinion?

 

.065 or a little less to start on the pinion.

 

Probably going to end up with around .120 at least on each side of the carrier.

 

It was a spare axle I had laying around. The pinion was blown and the ring gear in mine was blown so I swapped over the summer. I looked everywhere for the old pinion yesterday but I must have thrown it away. Guess I never thought about needing the shim thickness.
Smashboogie I'm at a total of about .2 on the carrier.

 

I have another thread labeled gear pattern if anyone would like to point their attention there.. If a mod wants to delete this post that would've great as the other thread is more prominent.

 

.065 on the pinion. It will probably wind up being less than that from experience. Just make sure you have the pinion and carrier setup with the proper preload.