rear pinion hates me

[greasemonkey]

so...is it bad when you can grab the driveshaft near the diff and move it side to side with just under 1/2" of side play?? haha, the rear diff started making a ton of horrible noise on my last trip to town, got out and checked, thinking the U-joint straps may be loose...no, nothing coming loose, just the pinion gear wobbling around, that's all.
it's moving enough that I'm surprised the ring/pinion didn't bind up.

a friend has a 2500 diesel axle from a '94 available...that should be the 2nd gen D70, right? don't remember if it's a limited slip or not; but it is a 3.54 gear ratio. I'm pretty sure my gears are 3.54 in my 93 but being a 4wd, I will check for sure on my ratio.

do the leaf perches line up and does the 2nd gen axle fit? is the U-joint different? and do very many guys swap in 2nd gen axles or not?

[GLHS]

Spring perches line up. Should swap right in there no problem.
Overall axle width might be a hair more.
Same u-joints. 1410 series.

[pulltilbroke]

did the 94 have an auto or a stick
Auto=d70
Stick=d80

[greasemonkey]

thanks for the replies, just worked on throwing it in last night. it was from an auto truck, so it's a D70. it's about 6-7" wider, which is fine, it actually brings the tires out to the edge of the flatbed instead of being tucked pretty far in.

-U-joints are the same

-the spring perches lined up fine, using the 1st gen u-bolts I had to trim the corners off of the axle mounting pads as they're a bit wider.

-I forgot to get the brake lines with the 2nd gen axle, since the 2nd gen D70 is wider, the 1st gen brake lines don't reach; on the driver's side I was able to straighten some of the bends and that reached but the passenger's side is about 4" short of the wheel cylinder

-the driver's side parking brake line is slightly different where they hook to the pedal cable: the cable housing reaches to the 1st gen factory holder but the cable coming out of the housing is short since the 2nd gens use a funky cable attach bracket, where one cable's long, the other is short. 1st gen cables are equal length in front of the frame mounted cable housing bracket. I have yet to address this.

Oh yeah, on mine, I found 2.1/2 pinion teeth chillin in the bottom of the diff...so, with less teeth on the pinion, does that change my gear ratio?!

[dpuckett]

It's too late now, but you should have just left the brake lines on the axle alone, and just screwed in the brake line to the axle, next to the vent tube.

You said his axle is quite a bit wider than yours? Is his a dually? If so, it has a D80.

Auto & SRW- D70
Manual- D80
DRW- D80

So, the only time he'd have a D70 is if it were a SRW auto.

Daniel

[greasemonkey]

It was a 2500 SRW auto, which means it should be a D70...are the D70 and D80 SRW axles different widths or something? the '94 axle is definitely wider than my 93 D70.

-other fitment issue I forgot to mention, the first gen wheels didn't fit on the 2nd gen axle, slightly too small of a center hole. instead of grinding the wheels out I used the black steel rockcrawlers I had on my '96 that I sold; which I think is great, I think these wheels look way better, anyway!

[greasemonkey]

here's my fix for the pinion gear!




before and after:

[PToombs]

WOW! A shop big enough to get the truck in AND work on it!

[eyoung429]

Um....what is the wheel offset from front to rear??? That 2nd pic is more than 4 in out from the front...

[PToombs]

Wow, I never noticed that! Good eye Earl!

[greasemonkey]

Um....what is the wheel offset from front to rear??? That 2nd pic is more than 4 in out from the front...

do you mean the track width front and rear? wheel offset/backspacing is the same on all four, I don't remember what it is but they do stick out quite a bit. track width from the outside edge of the tread is 79"/81" front/rear, I'm not sure what makes it look all weird in that 2nd picture.

WOW! A shop big enough to get the truck in AND work on it!

some people tell me I'm cheating pretty bad with access to a 60x60 insulated, heated and air conditioned aircraft maintenance shop! working for dad has it's perks!

[MMiller]

How many miles on the new dana 70? I'd check the back lash and the end play of the carrier, to prevent this from happening again. I've pulled apart a couple of dana 70s, and the shims were beat out of the ring gear side of the carrier, allowing the carrier to move all over the place. If it has much over 150,000 miles or towed very much, check it.

Michael