Dana 44 Pinion question

So I bought an old set of Scout Dana 44s to go on my '72 CJ5. I adjusted the caster, moved the rear spring perches and outboarded the front spring hangers.

Before I did all this, I opened up the diffs and was glad to see they look like they had been rebuilt recently. The bearings and races all looked excellent and the nuts were easy to come off. (I could even see some scarring on some nuts and washers that made it look like the hub nuts etc were removed before).

Here's the problem. Everything was in such good shape, I decided I wouldn't even bother removing the pinions. They spun evenly and I know the diffs were not leaking when I got them. The seals, etc. look good.

But...after working on the housings (cleaning off the rust and dirt etc.) the insides of the pumpkins got fairly dusty. I wanted to make sure they were all clean. I considered using brake cleaner but a friend suggested that - because I did not remove the pinions - the brake cleaner could ruin the grease in the pinion bearings. Instead, he suggested I use kerosene.

Well, when I cleaned out the pumpkins (empty except for the pinions) all the grime, dust, dirt etc. seems to have settled in the pinion area. One pinion no longer spins. The other has obvious dirt under there that I could feel as grit when I tried to turn the pinion.

My question: assuming I am not going to change the gears, can I remove the pinions and replace them with the same shims? After removing and cleaning the pinions and bearings am I going to have to reset the preload?

Thanks for any help. Sorry about the long post.

 

Should be the same as using setup bearings. I'd say replace the pinion bearings and run it. D44 will use shims to set pinion bearing preload, not a crush sleeve. No worries about resetting pinion bearing preload as long as you reuse the exact shim stacks. Run a test pattern after, though just to be on the safe side.

By the way - brake cleaner is actually preferred for cleaning out the inside of an axle. And you shouldn't "grease" pinion or carrier bearings. They'll get plenty of 90W lube. If you're worried about dry-starting, spin the pinion/ring gear a few times by hand to get some gear lube climbing up into the pinion bearings and then drive it.