Dana 50 re-gear: missing crush sleeve!

[The_Josh_Bear]

I’m 95% sure the gear set you got will fit the older axle, I know the Dana 60 stuff swaps over so the 50 should be fine also, if you have your front diff pulled apart already you can take measurements of the pinion old vs new and the main stuff should line up except where they put the crush sleeve.

Ok so parts finally came in. I'm struggling with how the crush sleeve would fit with the oil slinger in place. Crush sleeve only looks great, in contact with the inner bearing and would spin along with the pinion:

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But with the oil slinger there it hits and would simply crush the slinger into the bearing cage and ruin everything. But all the parts diagrams have both crush sleeve and oil slinger. I'm so tempted to run it without the slinger. Boo.

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[The_Josh_Bear]

I’m 95% sure the gear set you got will fit the older axle, I know the Dana 60 stuff swaps over so the 50 should be fine also, if you have your front diff pulled apart already you can take measurements of the pinion old vs new and the main stuff should line up except where they put the crush sleeve.

Also I totally pooched it and tossed the shims after seeing that they were half trashed and i had the late model pinion. Putting my calipers on the pinions they are identical to within a hair on non-machined surfaces so I'm guessing same vintage, whatever that may be. Yar.
Identical besides 4.10 vs 3.55, that is.

 

[ifrythings]

You have the wrong crush sleeve, should look like this

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If you tossed the shims your going to have to do a complete gear setup from scratch, you have to do gear setup anyway but if you had the old shims you could use them as a starting reference. Look on line for a good Dana 60 gear setup instructions and take your time, it’s not hard but does take some trial and error to get right.

 

[The_Josh_Bear]

You have the wrong crush sleeve, should look like this

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If you tossed the shims your going to have to do a complete gear setup from scratch, you have to do gear setup anyway but if you had the old shims you could use them as a starting reference. Look on line for a good Dana 60 gear setup instructions and take your time, it’s not hard but does take some trial and error to get right.

Weird, the big honkin sleeve is the one broncograveyard.com and others sell in all the D50 kits. Of course all the exploded view PDFs show a little guy like you posted.
I have found good instructions, just getting stuck on this sleeve. I just want it back together so I can drive my pickup!!!

@ifrythings Thanks for all of your knowledge and help!

 

[ifrythings]

When your setting up your gear set, don’t use the crush sleeve till the very end, just tighten the old pinion nut just enough that the pinion isn’t loose and turns easy, this will save you a ton of crush sleeves and your arms.

Also don’t put in the thin oil baffle till the very end as you may have to remove the pinion race a few times to get the depth right, just measure the baffle and replace it with the same thickness shim for setup.

Do you still have the carrier shims or are they gone also? If you have them they may help with setup also.

Also the yellow gear marking compound is a lot easier to see then the blue so if your having a hard time seeing the pattern get some yellow stuff. I also heard grease can work but have never tried it.

 

[typ4]

Please dont use the crush sleeve, they suck. I use eliminator kits in everything, especially the sterling, keeps the yoke tight so it doesnt eat up the splines. Ive built many danas and setting them up is easy, all older ones had shims, and the pinion should have a plus or minus make on it, if they are within 2 digits you can use the original depth shim.
I hate crush sleeves , did I mention that.
My truck makes enough torque the rear yoke will loosen in short order with a crush sleeve packing the camper. And yes new or used yoke, since I put the kit in, it hasnt loosened in 5 years.

 

[The_Josh_Bear]

Ok so finally some more updates and a few questions.

When I said "parts came in" earlier i bought a bunch of stuff a-la-carte from Broncograveyard.com and did not buy bearings of any kind, assuming that I could re-use them since it's a front axle and gets no miles. I was wrong. They arent scored in any way but worn for sure.

So that's why this update is taking so long, I went ahead and ordered the master kit and has to wait a week and a half for that...and somehow they couldnt be bothered to actually send the WHOLE KIT the first time so I had to wait again and lost all of last weekend since USPS is totally incompetent and didn't deliver it Saturday night as expected.
Broncograveyard.com is a great place for parts but the customer service is crap, there's a little more to the story but they just don't care at all.

So now I'm finally setting up my pinion preload. I made set up bearings for the housing, and setup cups/outer bearing for the pinion. **Fun note, the OE pinion bearing does not have any shims behind it. BUT the kit from US Gear changes that and shims behind the inner pinion bearing now instead of behind the inner bearing cup. They don't mention this on the website so I didnt make a setup inner bearing, I just pressed it on.**
THEN I got the stupid second shipment and already had a good bearing pressed so I'm just going to re-use the stock pinion depth shims and pray it works. Like Russ mentioned my pinions are only -1 difference so these shims should work ok.

For the setup cup/bearing on the pinion I used the old stuff I pulled out of it. They are worn but not scratched/gouged. Is that ok?

Pinion preload question: using the worn cups and one worn bearing, will preload increase using the shim method once I swap in the good bearings? I have the pinion at 12 in-lbs, but I don't know how this will change when I change them out. I guess I could seat the new inner cup and see what happens, then the new outer bearing too if it doesnt change too much. Need 14-19 in-lbs on new bearings.

I have to say that this project has taken WAY longer than I wanted it to. But once you have a handle on what to do and have setup bearings, the whole thing is very doable. Thanks for the advice and encouragement guys!

 

[typ4]

FYI. Much better places to order gear stuff from. As you now know.

 

[Black dawg]

Don't bother with pinion preload shims until final assembly with new bearings. I usually leave the shims out, that way I can tighten up the pinion for real good drag when checking pattern. Then, during final assembly, add shims to get preload correct. I always like to smack both ends of the pinion with a big copper hammer during preload adjustment. It is pretty amazing how much looser it can get after smacking it a couple times. This is with bearings and races oiled.

 

[The_Josh_Bear]

Don't bother with pinion preload shims until final assembly with new bearings. I usually leave the shims out, that way I can tighten up the pinion for real good drag when checking pattern. Then, during final assembly, add shims to get preload correct. I always like to smack both ends of the pinion with a big copper hammer during preload adjustment. It is pretty amazing how much looser it can get after smacking it a couple times. This is with bearings and races oiled.

Ok roger that. So at final assembly if the stack is wrong you just have to press off the outer bearing over and over till it's right? That wont mess it up at all?
The US gear instructions actually mention the hammer trick as part of the install, good tip though as I haven't seen that anywhere else online.

 

[Black dawg]

Hopefully the smaller pinion bearing doesn't fit that tight. Usually tapping on the yoke end of the pinion is enough to slide the pinion out. No reason for that bearing to be a press fit. If that bearing is a press fit(because of manufacturing tolerances) I usually hone it for a tight slip fit to make it easier to deal with.