got to love this

[cummins king]

my dad's got a budy that does from trannys to rearends and anything in between, so i call him up to see if he's got a dana powr lok, yes bran new in box 300.00 bucks, wow. so i go down there (for some reason with back brakes only( 20mins there 1hour back trafic) he pulls the box off the self, no bearings, okay checks his book gets 2 off the shelf perfect. so he explains to me how to put it in okay pay him his 300 and i go home to the shop to put it in. so he tells me that im to take the shimms off the old non posi unit(cant think of the tech name) and that all the leghts will be the exact same , so i cut the old bearings off and get the shimms and slid them on to the new posi unit and press on the bearings everythings perfect up to now. i go to put the bearing holder cup thingy doesn't fit bearings are to big, oh $%&# and it 11pm. today i cut the new oversize bearings off and put two new ones on. exelect cups slide on, and then i go and put it in the rearend, and torque the u holeders in place, and i see i theres any side to side play, 2 MM , now i got to cut the bearings off again put more shimms on and then put everything back to getheir, a 2hour at the most job is now taking me six.

i've leart to many lesons in this one
#1. even know your dad's budy who been doing this stuff for 25 years, can make more then one mistake in the same job
#2its not always a good deal
#3check before you put the bearings on to make sure there the right size

[KTA]

Dana axles require the use of dummy bearings for setup, that way you don't have to press good bearings on and off 10 times to get the shim packs right.

[cummins king]

yes but i didnt have any, but theres a way if you dont have dummy bearings.
remove there old shims from the non posi, put them on the posi press the good bearings on then put the posi in the rearend bolt it up and check how much play u got, them lossen it abit and get bigger shims like the ones that they put into the ford rearends, and put them between the axel housing and the bearing cup
bolt it tight and check again repeat untill theres no play
make sure that the gears arnt to close or to far apart
then put rearend back togeter

[MMiller]

I've used an air hammer with a chisel bit several times to get bearings off of dana carriers. There is also a special tool to remove the bearings that works great, but its about $300.

Just buy two sets of bearings. One set hog out with a dremel until they slide on and off the carrier. These are your setup bearings. When its setup then put on the new bearings. Be warned though, no matter how good the bearings are, and how tight the manufacturing tolerance is, you may still have to pull the new bearings off to move a couple thousandths of a shim around. BTDT.

Differentials as a rule require patience, and can be time consuming, but when done right take less time then done wrong once, then right the second time......You should have laughed at him when he said they would all be the same. You can get close with the original shim pack, but almost never can they be thrown together.

Michael

[cummins king]

next time i will at him