Dana 20 assembly tips.

Well I started the rebuild of my Dana 20 today with the Novak site for direction. It went well until I got to the point of removing the shift rods. Novak's site failed to mention the presence of the interlock pill, (and noob me had no idea of its presence) luckly after a couple of hour of Frustrated attempts to get them out I found a pirate forum that mentioned the need to rotate the rear rod a quarter turn before pulling. I did and it worked... Needless to say it took me almost 8 hours to get the case disassembled and cleaned. I am hoping to re-assemble the case in half the time. First is that logical? Second any tips that I should know about for assembly? I am worried about those 48 little needle bearings... Any tips besides vasaline for assembly? Also do I need to pack the shift bearings with any kind of grease or will they get lubed enough at first to not need any?

Thanks, Jake

 

Shift bearings?
I'd suggest a light dab of blue threadlocker on the shift rail set screws to keep them from loosening.
Vaseline to hold the needle bearings in place for the intermediate shaft. Do not use grease. Lightly oil the tapered bearings on assembly.
Cleanliness is your friend. Light sealer on the inside of the yokes so as they are installed it smears along the splines outward. If you put it on the shaft it smears inward and can plug up oil passages or get in the bearings.

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That was supposed to be shaft bearings, auto correct on my phone... I am talking about the bearings on either side of the front output shaft.

 

Ok. So front output shaft bearings. Lightly oil them with gear oil on assembly. If you pack them with Vaseline or the like it can "cushion" the bearing to race giving you a false endplay reading on setup. Btdt.


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Should I put sealant between the shims and rear cover?

 

Yup. On bolt threads also.
Very thin coat is all that's needed. Make sure all parts are clean and oil free. Spray brake cleaner is your friend here.

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Do you put it between each shim? Or shim to case? Or shim to cover?

 

Yes, yes and yes. The objective is to prevent the oil from seeping out between the shims. You don't need much - too much will affect your end play measurement.

Conceivably you could coat the outer edge of the shim pack after assembly and that would also prevent leakage. That is what I've done in the past. But Nick has assembled a lot more of these than I have.

 

That is what I assumed and did. Any advise on getting the poppet balls back in?

 

Got the poppet balls figured out, now looking at my parts left I have four washers... and two trust washers three of the washers are identical and I know go on the intermediate shaft. The fourth is smaller in diameter and a little thicker than the others... I don't remember where it came from (bad feeling) does it ride on the rear output shaft between the yoke and bearing?

 

Front output shaft.


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I did something wrong somewhere... Once I put the yoke back on and began to tighten the nut the front output shaft sized up. I backed the nut off and tapped the yoke out a hair and the shaft freed back up... what did I do wrong? Do I need to add more shims?

 

Is there supposed to be a spacer between the yoke and the bearing? I have one between the bearing and gear. The spacer in question is the same diameter as the outside of the yoke and is about 3/16 thick... no pictures sorry, any info will help, I am kinda freaking out that I am going to have to tear the whole thing apart again.

 

On some 20's there is a spacer between the gear and bearing (actually a thrust washer) and one between the bearing and yoke. Sounds like the style you have. The other style has the thrust washer between the gear and bearing but uses a circlip/snap-ring to hold it in place and the bearing butts up against the snap ring (like an 18 transfer case). This style does not use a spacer between the bearing and yoke.


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Thanks, that is a big relief... any idea why when I tighten the yoke nut I can no longer turn the shaft?

 

Is the yoke seal seated all the way down to the step in the bore of the housing? If not the yoke dust shield is probably hitting the seal and binding on it.


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