Didn't follow any manual. My friend who was helping me used to do this everyday for a off road shop here in town. He said he has upwards of 500 axles he did gear swaps in, so I trust him. He has way more experience than me in this area as I only did it in school in my instructor watching. Axles are done I'm going to get out there today and put then in. Then hopefully I will have to sit down at my computer and finish this thread. Since so far all my posting is from my phone.
Looking forward to driving it again. I also put a new magnaflow exhaust kit in while the axles are out.
Thanks guys!

 

That number of axles does not correlate to the admitted frustration. You'll know if they are setup immediately or within the breakin period.


^^Don't be so seriously realistic!!

 

Sorry, didn't mean to be..... My bad.

 

The backlash is where the frustration was not pinion preload or crush sleeve. We would make adjustments with the smallest shim for backlash and it would make drastic changes in the backlash reading. Then the micrometers were using to check shims died and no measurement device until we got new batteries. But I definitely know tomorrow if it is set up right or if something is majorly off. Just have a few things left to do.
Friend that was helping me said he either has axles where he gets shimming right on first try and backlash is good or its pain of in and out changing shims for awhile before its right.

 

Thought the 9.25 rears had threaded adjusters for backlash?

 

For any axle, shims on the pinion are also very important for determining the final backlash. It's a combination of those shims (in/out of the diff) and the carrier shims (side/side). In general, yes you start with the same shim setup that came out and see "how close" things are to figure which directions to move. No one gets it the first try. If they do, they are full crap they rode in on. Ok ok, the only way it would be right the first try is if the gears being replaced were exactly the same ratio b/c the previous were broke... lol

That is why I was curious why you stated being so set and sure to have already SET the pinion preload with the crush sleeve. To us, that is typically just on the rear axle (9.25"). That means you are "hoping" that shim is right and you leave it to go do the carrier adjustment (threaded adjusters, no shims). You didn't give the impression that you might have to redo the pinion with multiple crush sleeves. Hence HeyYou's comment about "a couple tries".

Or did you get and use a crush sleeve for the Dana 44 front axle?

Let us know what you are referring to so it's cleared up.

Bottom line is...using a bearing puller for multiple iterations is frustrating and can result in damage to the bearings and shims. Hence the "setup" bearings I mentioned. Someone that has "done" so many in the past would have known that or used the shops plentiful supply. Name of the game in the shop is to do it the fastest time possible without compromising the technical importance of 0.001" increments!! It's the difference between a noisy set of gears and/or worse.

Go read the factory service manual for the axle or follow the directions of where the gears come from. Typically the vendor provides them.

It's a fact!!

 

All this was on the front Dana 44. Checked the pattern and pinion was right where it needed to be. So left the pinion alone and use carrier shims to set backlash. The Chrysler 9.25 was a breeze compared to the front. With those adjuster nuts. Checking pattern on that and the pinion is good as well.
We did read the instructions that came with the gears for how to set up in each axle. But it was so vague that it was useless except for the specs of pinion preload and backlash. It just said to check pinion depth by checking pattern.
Also used crush sleeve on both axles, both axles came apart with a crush sleeve so both went back together with new crush sleeves.

 

He used to work for the shop. He left and is going to school full time for medical degree. Nor did we find this bearing puller until after we cut the old bearings off. I was planning on using old bearings as set up bearings but when I couldn't get ahold of a carrier bearing puller I had to find someway of getting the bearings off.

Either way the process in which this was done was not the most ideal. But it is done, the axles meets the specs of which were given. Currently by all means there is no reason they should not work. Only failure I can see is a bearing failure.

 

 

Just drove around the block. Going to shower then take it out again to start setting the gears. So far it is running great. No odd noises, no odd vibrations. Will let you know more later