Have you installed your own gears?

[ChrisD]

Just wondering who here has installed their own gears? Any good stories? How many tries did it take to get a good pattern?

[ZAEDOCK]

I replaced a R&P in my old Dana 35 right before a trip to the mountains. I had some shims, but lucked out as I was doing like for like on the ratio and the shims were good (my brother had the dial indicator too). Can't remember if I used paint or white out for marking compound. The pattern was spot on.

I've assisted with a couple of Dana 60s, done a few 44's, a 30 and messed with a Chevy 10 bolt. Average time was about 4 hours an axle and maybe 6 tries average?

[beaker]

I did my D30, and finished it just before a Paragon trip if I recall. Second try on the shims was good enough for me, but I did get the preload a bit tighter than I wanted. Two evenings of work, no problems to date with them.

-mike

[Frank]

The first time on a dana 30 and 44 took about a week for both. Changing to a different set of 30 and 44 took a couple hours as only the preload had to be changed. The thing is you will Never need to have some one else do this for you again. I read everything over and over again and then again now Im glad I took the time to do it myself. FjR68

[johnsxj]

Three D30s, Two 8.8s, One D35, 1/2 a D44, and a partridge in a pear tree.

My first axle was the Ford 8.8 in my rig. That one took me 8-9 hours to do (sitting on stands in the garage).
2nd was my D30 the day after the 8.8 (another 7-8 hours).
Did the D30 and D35 in Marks old TJ. Those took about 6-7 hours each.
Kurt and I did his 8.8 the first time around in about 4-5 hours (helped that he popped for the cool interlocking shim pack kit).
The 1/2 of a D44 was when Scott and I put the Detroit in his old TJ. He was keeping his gears so it only involved having to set backlash to the same spec and keeping pre-load good. Should have only taken a couple hours but...........

[norstar]

You already know that I installed my gears from another thread. The rear D44 was quite easy. The front D44 took a few more tries because the ring gear has a .002 runout (but still within spec). +2K miles on the rear and the front is about 1K. Tested 4x4 in the snow around town and on the highway. I still need to run air lines to the ARBs.