Dana 30 question

Is it possible to change out a side bearing on a Dana 30 case without mucking up the backlash setting?
I pulled the case out so I could install a locker and upon inspecting the side bearings I found one of the cone rollers is damaged and I won't put it back in without replacing it.
It would seem that you could remove the old bearing, leave the shims in place and then press the new bearing on top of the shims and nothing should have changed, correct?:?

 

yes, but of course there could be a vaiable in there somewhere , bearings should be real close even with differnt makers .....but original bearing installed all the way , I would do it , but run the gears with gear marking compound before and after ,really should not change though. I kind of have to agree with Pat , if one is bad,,,,,,,,,,,,,pull the carrier and see how the pinion feels silky smooth or chattery..

 

Thanks.
Yeah I'll have to give the pinion a spin to see how it feels and you guys are right about putting new bearings on both sides. I've already got all the stuff for new bearings and seals out at the wheels. The oil was pristine when I drained it and the ring gear has absolutely no wear pattern on it. I have the feeling that this R&P has been replaced some time not too long before I got the jeep.
I'll have to take it to a shop that does differentials for the bearing work, I don't have the tools to change the bearings. Probably change the inner oil seals as well.

 

normally one would use the special yellow gear marking grease to indicate the wear pattern when a differential is put back together. Bearings are usually ground to a tolerance of +/-.0001" . the only thing that could be bad is if it were put together wrong in the first place. It shouldn't matter though, between the marking grease and a dial/test indicator you'll be able to tell if it'll work out right

 

when I changed to D30 I paid to have it set up ,when I got it back there was no marking compound anywhere ,so I had some and ran the pattern ,it was horrible !!riding all on the edge and shallow,and pinion depth was stupid off, so I brought it back showed him the pattern and he said it was close enough since it was a front end and not used much , well I got ALL the money back, and did it myself, my front end sees a moderate amout of abuse and has not been opened yet.

 

Stopped in over at a local shop http://www.gounitrax.com/default.htm today. Talked with the old man that started the place and he told me that just doing a straight bearing swap will be successful 99% of the time without messin up the backlash. So I had them press on some new bearings, after I made sure they were American made They told me that's all they use
This weekend I'll re-install the ring gear, bolt it all in there and run the pattern to be sure. Fun stuffs

 

what about the pinion side?

 

Rotates smooth and freely

 

I've done a number of ring and pinion setups and posi or locker only intallations. In doing a posi/locker installation, I make sure the pinion is not sloppy then take backlash readings at 3 points around the cricumference of the ring gear and mark it down some where so I don't forget. Then I install the new diff using new bearings set to the original backlash. I set the bearing preload to as new factory spec which for a D30 would be .,015". No problems so far.