OK, my pinion seal on my front dana 30 axle was leaking. While examining it and before I started to work on it... I noticed that I can move my pinion yoke in and out about a quarter inch. In other words, I can pull the yoke away from the pumpkin about a quarter inch and then push it back in.

I went ahead a pulled the old pinion seal and put a new one in I played with the pinion and could not pull on it hard enough to keep it from wiggling.

I am guessing its my bearing that is bad, but confused as to why even with the pinion nut cranked down, why I can push my pinion in and out.

I also worry that I may be slowly damaging my ring and pinion.


any thouths....

 

bump... anyone?

 

What did the fluid look like that was leaking out of your pumpkin when you removed the old seal? Did it leak any fluid at all? Did you top it off after installing the new seal? Is the vent tube attached firmly to the pumpkin vent nipple?

 

I have played with the diff before, but never a complete rebuild. I do have all the nessary tools so I am willing to give it a shot. And your support would be greatly appreciated. The fluid had no indicator of water, and there was plenty of fluid. But, I do have a Aussie locker and it does ratchet hard so perhaps the jerking (binding) of the racheting may have caused premature wear on the bearing.

I thought the new Dana 30's did not have a crush sleve. Have you played with a new 30 and if so, does it have a crush sleve?

 

Yes both the JK's d30 and d44 use a crush collar. The pinion shims are simply used to set pinion depth, not preload.

I'm curious what your pinion angle was?

 

Good question... I have a 4.25 inch lift in the front but stock control arms.

I am kinda of bumming about the crush sleeve as I went beyound 200 ft pounds while trying to eliminate the play. My train of thought at the time was that the yoke was not seating properly so adding additional torque may force that issue. Unfortunately that was not the case.

Now I know I am going to have to change the bearings and debating pulling the axle shafts until I can work on it before more damage is done.

 

Don't worry about the over 200 ft/lbs part...that crush collar takes WELL over 200 ft/lbs to set. I'm no expert, but I'm curious if your pinion angle with stock control arms and that much lift placed greater point load on the pinion bearings prematurely wearing them...curious
Give this a look over...I mostly did the write up for the d44, but the 30 is not different https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/show...?82262-Gearing

 

Thanks for the link...i will look at the jeep this weekend

 

I have a really good Dana Axle manual. I will dig into that tommarrow and see what i can find out for ya, but it sounds like the crush sleeve to me.

 

As the sleeve crushes it gets thinner which gets the pinion bearings closer together. It requires a great deal of torque to start the crushing process on a crush sleeve. After it begins to crush and all the slop between the bearings has been removed so that when you pull in and out on the pinion there is no movement it takes very little turning of the pinion nut to get it crushed to the point where preload is correct. When doing the install if you get the preload to high you have to remove the seal, outter bearing, and crush sleeve and put in a new sleeve, put the outter bearing and oil slinger if it has one, the new seal and start over. You would also install a new pinion nut along with the new crush sleeve.