Hi all, my baby’s rear is bleeding and rather than spend 2 days on my back replacing the front seal, I figure it’s probably time to bite the bullet and get it rebuilt. I’m in the St. Louis area and looking for recommends for a competent rebuilder. I’d prefer not having to ship but will if I can’t find someone in the area. Anybody know anyone around me who was the proper skills and knowledge to do it right?

Thanks.

 

While you are at it.....you could get a little more "pep" if you went to a slightly higher gear ratio.....
OR
keep what you have while it is being rebuilt. (just throwing that out there)

 

Yep I’ve given that a thought too. But first need to see if there’s anyone around here who can do it right. That’s the harder part!

 

not a lot of people work on that dana. i think it is pretty durable if it lived it's life in a non-hammering household. you wanna hit it hard repeatedly, talk to gary about upgrading to the 79-earlier type. not that major a science fair project doing the conversion. if you drive it like it is a car, it probably needs a few seals and a bunch of suspension bushings that surround it.

 

Well it is a corvette so…with a 5.3l vortec swap. I really just want piece of mind. If I gotta do the seals might as well do the whole kabob right? Diffs are just one of those things that requires some special skills so I need a pro.

maybe I can get lucky and someone within reasonable distance has the goods otherwise I guess I can ship it out.

anyone shipped a diff recently? Any idea on the costs?

thanks!

 

If it's just the seals, I wouldn't touch a thing, especially if it's not noisy. How many miles?

 

apparently the dana 44 got a lot of use in jeeps. if you know or can find somebody who likes to play in the mud while driving they may know somebody. they break those things.

 

She’s got approx 80k miles on her. Hard to know if the diff is making noise with my side pipes 😝 and I have no idea how hard it might have been driven before me. What kind of noise should I be listening for? Never had a bad diff in the past so I’m not sure. Thanks!

 

Usually a humming or a whine of variable degree. If the car hasn't been driven hard or abused, I would think it's fine. Just to bring you back to reality, try to price a complete rebuild. It may sway your thoughts. Just parts alone could cost $400 or more.

 

Yeah I know it won’t be cheap. I may try just the seal myself but I should also try and listen carefully on a quick run. She does make a howling noise around 45+ mph but not sure if that’s just wind noise or not. Hard to pinpoint a source with side pipes and t tops off 😆

 

off road jeep place a little west of st louis. i posted a link to them. my post is gone. so i won't post any names, but they specialize in re-gearing jeeps to account for their huge tires.

 

Hmm. Any experience with them?

 

i live in new jersey. just tryna find options. i know a guy who works in a shop in philly and he is a rock crawler. most likely does his own. but he will know if a jeep guy can handle a corvette dana 44. talk to those axle dudes. what you want is a very basic rebuild. seals, bearinmgs and set up clearances. i don't think you need cryoing gears or anything exotic. and what you have for a core is not busted up so you do NOT want to send your pumpkin to a big shop never to be seen again and they send you back one some leadfoot blew the stuffins out of and the case was rewelded everywhere.

 

The Corvette Dana 44 shares very little with the Jeep 44's. "Dana 44 " the name, is about the only thing interactable. C3 Dana 44s were somewhat poorly designed and machined at the factory. That being said they hold up pretty well. You might start looking for another one near by they don't sell for much. And You can search here on doing an early C3 pumpkin into Your Dana 44 Batwing conversion that is popular. Was Your 81 a 4 speed car ? If so it has the better 1/2 Shafts.

 

i asked Gary about this. he says you can put the posi from a C4 diff in yours. but the aluminum bearing retainers are a weak link but need to be machined from scratch out of steel. he very strongly recommends converting to the iron eaton diff. here is his pm to me on the subject. he didn't answer about jeep guys doing a corvette rear. but we learn this stuff as backyard ********. i can't see somebody who does rears for a living not being able to do one of these. Gary's quote: yeah the 80-82 aren't on my favorite list. The QC on the late 70's wasn't too good and then they went back to the DANA diff and it was made for a low performance mostly automatic car. They had to cut weight to me MPG standards.

The parts are smaller, the pinion is back to the common square shoulder, the bearing caps are aluminum, and the clutch retainers stick out and get chewed up. A complete iron diff with axles and cover is 100lbs, these are about 75? I will take the extra 25 lbs for the much better diff.

Yeah you can get a c4 posi in one and you can machine a steel cap, maybe Bairs. I wouldn't use any other vendor. These are not impossible to build but they're kind of an odd ball diff. By the time you spend the money on rebuilding one, if you can find a guy to machine caps, add in the c4 posi I would go for the iron and build it to application. A correctly built 10 bolt can hold up to some power.
__________________
Gary

 

Hmm, that’s good info thanks. It’s an auto. It now has 4L60e in it though. I have no idea the internal condition of the diff tho. Im going to get her up on Jack’s and take closer look but I suspect she’s all stock. I wouldn’t mind going with a lower gear ratio tho so another reason to have her rebuilt. Who is Gary and how do you contact him?

 

GTR1999. but he won't work on your diff. he will give you info though.

 

Bee Jay on here is running 500 whp with a dana 44. Add a steel cap to the left side and replace the straps with a cap and you should be fine.
His thread I broke another u-joint covers what you need to look for.

 

Cool. Thanks guys!

 

You can always get one from here . I bought my Dana 44 kit from them and did it myself


https://www.duntovmotors.com/differentials-80-82.php