Archived Broken Pinion Shaft

[thaddad]

Last night broke my rear pinion shaft in half pulling a lousy 1/2 ton Chev out of the ditch. Don't understand it, it was as easy pull on nearly dry road, didn't even spin. My truck is a '93 W350 dual wheel tow truck 3. 54 gears and standard shift.



Should I rebuild or replace my rear end or look for a stronger one? I have seen posts here about swapping a stronger rear end in. Can anyone tell me what will fit without a lot of modification? Time is important as this is my only tow truck.



Tim

 

[Roger rodbolt]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2403083263&category=33731

 

[Joseph Donnelly]

If the housing is OK, I'd check the junkyards for a new ring and pinion. Dana 70 stuff is plentiful and has been used for decades.

 

[Hutchew]

Check this.........

I snapped mine off right behind the nut messing around right after I built my truck. Brand new 3. 54 spicer gears, and a brand new Dana Powr-Lok carrier. When we tore it down, everything but the pinion looked ok, just a few marks on the carrier where the pinion had banged into it, so all I ordered was a new ring & pinion. When we tried to set it up, we discovered that the carrier had somehow egg shaped by about 30 thousandths and had warped by about 25 thousandths. Had to wait another week for a new carrier case to put it back together. My gearhead said he had never seen one do that before.

So, you may need more than just gears, FYI.



*PS. The TracLok on Ebay is a good front-end unit, but I wouldn't run it in the rear of a CTD. It only has two spiders, instead of four like the Powr-Lok, and isn't very aggressive. Read more here: http://www.ring-pinion.com/standard-carriers.shtml

 

[thaddad]

Help! Joe Donnelly

Have ordered TDR Issure 24. Could not borrow Dodge Service Manual this weekend. I have new Dana parts. Ring, pinion and carrier and associated parts. The new pinion gear is marked . 459. The old gear was marked . 808 and had . 055 shim behind rear pinion bearing. Does this mean I add . 294 to the shim pack behind the rear bearing? Please post reply or e-mail me at -- email address removed --. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[B.G. Smith]

Gear

The big numbers(808, 459) may be production numbers. There should be a single digit with either a + or - behind it which represents (in thousands of an inch) the amount the depth varies from the standard depth of a pinion stamped with a 0. bg

 

[Joseph Donnelly]

Yep, look for the etched in number with a + or -. The number should be from zero to four. You are looking at production numbers and the numbers used to ensure you have a matched ring and pinion set. The ring gear will have the same number on its perimeter.

 

[thaddad]

Thanks Joe & BG

I guess it was "brain fade" I had done this before on a GM rear end. I has been almost 20 yrs though. My gear had a big smear on it where it contacted the carrier and I could not read it. Of course at first I was thinking the big 3 digit number might be the total distance between the pinion face and housing. I did find a Chilton book yesterday that explained the + or- numbers in relation to the 3. 5 " figure. After looking at it awhile I see all the info is the same as the Factory data that a friend downloaded for me. After I studied my gear for awhile with a magnifying glass I could make out the + and what looks like a 7 I guess it must be a 2 with the tail smeared off so I'll go with that and change the pinion shim pack Accordingly. Thanks Again,, Tim Haddad

 

[BennyHL]

Originally posted by thaddad

Last night broke my rear pinion shaft in half pulling a lousy 1/2 ton Chev out of the ditch. Don't understand it, it was as easy pull on nearly dry road, didn't even spin. My truck is a '93 W350 dual wheel tow truck 3. 54 gears and standard shift.

The dry road is i'm sure the reason it did break. . lots of torque. . tire has traction. . something's gotta move!



Out of curiousity with's the spline count on the pinions in these new 70's? I wouldn't ever expect to snap a 70 pulling out a 1/2 ton chevy.