It's time to give the rear axle a good follow-up vist and address anything I skipped (pretty much everything except the brakes) during the initial overhaul.
Drums are off with this handy-dandy puller courtesy of BMIC (you can finally have it back now, Bruce...). If you're using anything other than one of the pullers to remove rear drums you are wasting your time.
I removed the rear differential cover for a quick peek and noticed some significant play in the small spider gears.
From a couple other threads and some additional online research it is clear that I definitely have a problem. I've been skirting the idea of a differential rebuild out of sheer intimidation but I'm tired of dreading it. Time to conquer the demon. Let's get to it.
I don't have a slide hammer but I found that by attaching the drums to the axle shaft I could use a block of wood behind the drums and with a few solid whacks from a BFH the axles popped right out.
Bearing caps removed and labeled. Don't mix these up!!
Axle housing on the operating table. The manual calls for a spreader but states a couple pry bars will do the trick when removing the carrier. I can vouch for that substitution.
Here's the offening spider gears. No real obvious problems but I will likely replace them.
More poor man's tools.
A large pipe wrench works well to hold the yoke while removing the nut. Be sure too leave those little u-bolts in place. They will protect the thin metal of the yoke from damage should the pipe wrench slip (ask me how I learned this).
Next up is a 2-jaw puller to remove the yoke. This thing fought back pretty hard. I find it amusing that in the Moses Ludel book he has pictures of a 12-yr old kid zipping this yoke off like nothing. I suggest in the next printing that the kid should be covered in blood, sweat, and grease for a more realistic representation.
I gently tapped, and then smashed the pinion out of the housing with a BFH and a brass drift.
Alternating various length "punches", I removed all the bearing races and the axle seals. Here's the longest reach - going all the way through the axle to get one of the outer grease seals. A couple taps and it popped right out.
Here's one of the races from the differential. Does this count as wear? Yikes.
So here's everything laid out.
I don't own a bearing puller of any type so I need to get one to complete the disassembly. I'll clean and inspect and then place an order for any new parts required. I'm still apprehensive about putting this thing back together. When I see words like "endplay" and "shims" and "bearing preload" I get nervous. Has anyone found a definitive "how-to" guide on a Dana 44 rebuild? There's plenty of resources for bits and pieces but no one-stop-shopping for how to really get it done. Demon conquered or not, I'd rather not be back here anytime soon - not on the same axle at least.
