Dana 44 "Rear" issues
Dude, who the hell designed the seal setup for the D44. Crazy! Anyway, I tore into the rear of my new 99 TJ because of my earlier blog about the trip from Vegas to Portland. The metal I discovered in the rear pumpkin turned out to be the passenger side carrier bearing and I needed to replace the passenger side axle seal so, why not do it all. I removed the axles and the axle bearing had broken in two on both sides. So I spent $70 on carrier bearings/races, ~$45 on axle bearings and $40 on just the axle seals. <-- NUTS!
Then I had to buy a hydraulic press to do the work. I drove 20+ miles to Harbor Freight, bought a $130 press, put it together and it will not work to press off the bearings on my D44. I even built my own brace so it was thinner but the press bent the fabbed up brace. I disassembled it and took the press back to Harbor Freight the same day which, total was now 80 miles of driving. I ended up at Napa in Beaverton and spent $60 for them to press off and on my bearings. When I got the axles back the retainer was on backwards. The Napa dude said he didn't take them off and I believe him because, that side had the issue with leaking. So I took them home, cut one side of the bracket and took my Oxy/Ace torch to the other side, heated it up and bent it for removal. I turned it around and put it back on. I will tack weld it in place once I determine the bolt location is sound. This took almost all freaking day. Now it is 8:00 pm and I am just cleaning up the parts. Wow, what a pain in the butt.
Pictures of the process here:http://picasaweb.google.com/esniper/Jeep_99TJ_rear_end_rebuild#
Then I had to buy a hydraulic press to do the work. I drove 20+ miles to Harbor Freight, bought a $130 press, put it together and it will not work to press off the bearings on my D44. I even built my own brace so it was thinner but the press bent the fabbed up brace. I disassembled it and took the press back to Harbor Freight the same day which, total was now 80 miles of driving. I ended up at Napa in Beaverton and spent $60 for them to press off and on my bearings. When I got the axles back the retainer was on backwards. The Napa dude said he didn't take them off and I believe him because, that side had the issue with leaking. So I took them home, cut one side of the bracket and took my Oxy/Ace torch to the other side, heated it up and bent it for removal. I turned it around and put it back on. I will tack weld it in place once I determine the bolt location is sound. This took almost all freaking day. Now it is 8:00 pm and I am just cleaning up the parts. Wow, what a pain in the butt.
Pictures of the process here:http://picasaweb.google.com/esniper/Jeep_99TJ_rear_end_rebuild#
posted by Esniper at 7:52 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home