So Im going to put a new ring and pinion in the 96 automatic I have. In preparation to do this I have been watching youtube videos so that I will know what to do. Seems very straight forward to me, however I have some questions about dealing with the carrier bearings and races. The the video below the guy had some considerable issues with removing the pressed on bearings and races. Im not sure I have the tools to accomplish removing the carrier bearings and especially on the pinion. Considering this, should I just plan to go to a machine shop to have them take care of the bearings? And if so, how do you know where exactly to press the bearing onto the pinion?

 

If you don't have, or can't get access the necessary tools your better to have a qualified person or shop do it.

 

Without a press, you could beat the old ones off. You won't want to just beat the new ones on. Talk to a few of your friends, they may have one where they work you could do this on after hours. You will also need correct size bushings to go over the shaft and contact the bearings in the proper locations.

Then there will be measurement tools needed as well.


I have never done a rear gear in any of my cars due to not having a few specialty tools/equipments in my garage. Also, a lot of shops don't charge a lot of money to do it. Before you go down this road, you may want to get it quoted. A lot can go wrong in the set up of the rear, failure is a strong possibility. This means you are out more money and time. Even if it doesn't fail loud clunks and whines from the gears are also a very strong possibility.

 

I changed out my Dana36 with 3.07 to a Dana 44 which i bought with 3.07 installed. I had 4.11 installed in the 44 and took it to a reputable mechanic. I personally wouldn't risk it. I am fairly mechanically inclined having done a LE2 build, and new torque converter myself. I removed the old 36 and installed the 44 myself, very simple. But the ring and pinion, crush sleeve and bearings, and proper setup...I wasn't willing to risk it. But that's me.

 

You press on the bearings inner race.... If you apply pressure or pull on the bearing cage or the roller bearings it will damage the bearing assembly. You need a piece of tubing the correct size to press bearings on and "Bearing Splitter" to press them off...

OTC PN 1123 is a good quality bearing splitter and what I use in my shop... as for tubing measure the ID and OD of the inner bearing race and find something that will work. You will also need a 20 Ton shop press minimum.... Sometimes those bearings are tight... espc with all the offshore mfgring we deal with today. Chinese bearings and Indian gear sets.... It's awesome putting that junk together.

Dana rears are real a PITA to set up backlash on by design, because the side shims are under/inside of the carrier bearings.... you have to press the bearings on and off every time you need to swap out a shim... the more times you press that bearing on and off the greater the possibility for damaging that bearing you have. When you press the factory bearings off for the first time take note of which shims are on each side and try to swap them around side to side to side to get your B/L correct.... If you start adding shims without paying attention to what you are adding and subtracting from each side - You will end up making the overall width of the carrier assembly too wide (or too narrow) to fit in the case properly.

Likewise setting up the pinion depth can be troublesome for a first timer because, again, the shims are under the rear pinion bearing and you have to press the bearing on and off every time you need to adjust the shim/pinion depth.

Factory Dana's use shims to set pinion bearing pre-load.... Most aftermarket gears use crush sleeves which are interesting to work with.

Pinion depth and backlash control the pinion and ring gear engagement pattern. If you set them up wrong the gear will make lots of noise at a minimum and eat itself worst case. It's not rocket science or black magic like some people make out. I encourage other to do as much of their own automotive work as they can, however setting up a ring and pinion is one of the more difficult and specialized jobs in the automotive industry..... However plenty of people have been taught or figured out on their own how to correctly do it.

Good luck on your first gear install.
Will

 

Thanks for all the input, it really does help me decide what to do. I went to a 4x4 shop to get the 4:10s but in my other car, but he charged me over $2k to do it considering they had to drop the exhaust and he also totally rebuilt it. Considering all the input from you all, I will drop the pumpkin myself and bring the unit and gears to the 4x4 shop, let him build it and put it back in the car myself. I dont want the headache of trying to do a job with the wrong tools, been there done that.

 

While they are in there, you might as well have them change the bearings and new posi clutches. They are not that expensive and you'll have essentially a new rearend assembly. Always get a quote before they start the work. Then you have the opportunity to shop around and they can't add numbers to the final total.