Uh oh...this don't look good

[DPKetchum]

My first thought when I read your post and saw the mileage on truck was problem might have been caused from moisture and lack of useage. On my 4x4 at least monthly I lock hubs to lube differantial try to do it more often then that. Your comment that rear cover hadnt been off and such low mileage!

 

["Mad Max"]

Major damage to rear end

Yup, the Dana 70 in my 93 was toast, literally, when I got it. The truck had 4. 10's and 207K miles, and after taking it to my local diff shop, he assured me that bad things had happened.

I went and looked at the damage - First off, the carrier had about 1/8" of side-side play in the housing (ouch), the posi disks were really, really shiny, all 6 bearings were toast, and the races looked like they disolved!

Sooooo, we had to have the housing ground to reset the races, get all new evrything, and a fresh 3. 54 set from Dana.

Now, everything is bueno - cost, $1316.

Big power = big consequences if you don't take care of 'em! But if you do they'll be around longer than you!

Old school = good



- Sam

 

[dan brooks]

It's done!

The truck is back together and everything went well. With the help of a good friend, we installed a new set of bearings and races, reset the backlash - lucked out and hit it right the first time.



Instead of Loctite, we used "bearing mount" liquid from Cat - if it will hold up to that kind of abuse on heavy equipment, I should be fine. We were able to replace all the "thin" shims (. 005 to . 010") with fewer, thicker shims (. 025+), so if the bearing does ever spin again it won't spit the shims out as easily. We also shaved the bearing caps a thousandth or two so the races wouldn't spin in the housing. My friend has used these methods on several trucks and they have held up to a lot of use/abuse, so I'm pretty confident everything will be okay.



The rear was apparently making more noise than I had originally thought - it seems very quiet now.



Thanks for all the info and input.

 

[scramblin]

Re: Major damage to rear end

Originally posted by SamsRams

Yup, the Dana 70 in my 93 was toast, literally, when I got it. The truck had 4. 10's and 207K miles, and after taking it to my local diff shop, he assured me that bad things had happened.

I went and looked at the damage - First off, the carrier had about 1/8" of side-side play in the housing (ouch), the posi disks were really, really shiny, all 6 bearings were toast, and the races looked like they disolved!

- Sam

I have a friend that has been rebuilding axles for 30 years. He said that this problem is very common on turbo diesels. He said that on dana 70s, bearings are usually good for about 70k to 100k miles before they begin to fail. You will never know you have a problem unless you check the side to side play or you loose a ring and pinion.