Dana 44 Eaton E-locker Was Dana 44 19 Spline

[oldtime]

Really nice pics and details Howard !
Hmmmnnn. And I was just about to mention how good the machined surfaces looked in the pics.
I was impressed till you pointed out the questionable machining.

I see what you mean about the side gear facing.
I guess the inner surface does not matter since the side gear hub portion is what really matters.

Yeah I see how the main casting is not true with the machining.
Looks kinda cheasey but should not effect the rest of the machining.

I know you pay big bucks and expect quality
I sure can't blame you for being particular.
That's exactly why we like old jeep stuff because quality control was important way back when.

IMHO Easiest / Best solution.....Are you set on tapered axle shafts ?
Other wise lets see what Eaton suggest

 

[wheelie]

Yea, I see those discrepancies now. I was also wondering about the finish on the gear teeth. Seems rough. But, I chalked that up to my lack of real knowledge about this stuff. Seems difficult to believe that a company that makes so many of these would have these issues.....if they are in fact functional issues. I am curious to see how this progresses. Hopefully for the best.

 

[Howard Eisenhauer]

Yes on the tapered axles. I got a set of 19 spliners specifically to fit this locker. A floater setup isn't economically feasible for me & this thing is advertised as fitting stock ECJs.

The gear teeth look a bit under finished, I'm thinking it probably doesn't make a big difference other than a little extra noise when making sharp turns. They do seem to be meshing properly but I'll bring that up with them as well.

H.

 

[oldtime]

You might also consider putting a centering pin into the axle shaft ends and on into the spacer block
Maybe a small roll pin.

 

[Howard Eisenhauer]

You might also consider putting a centering pin into the axle shaft ends and on into the spacer block
Maybe a small roll pin.

See post #8

H.

 

[Daryl]

I have had a set of E-lockers in the wife's Jeep for almost 2 years and love them. Just need to come up with the right puzzle pieces to make it all fit.

 

[oldtime]

See post #8

Yeah
I would suggest using a 3/16" x 1" long roll pin that's driven about 3/4" into the axle shaft.
Drill the ends of the spacer block large enough so that the spring pins can spin inside the spacer block.
Actually a solid roll pin would be better than a hollow spring pin.
The 1/8" diameter roll pin inside the 2 piece split spacer blocks tend to break after a while.

 

[Howard Eisenhauer]

Well it's getting near time to install this thing.

I did query Eaton on the spacer, spoke to a few people but never got anything back .

Grrrr.

So I had to go ahead with a DIY fix. I need to prevent the spacer from spinning around the spider shaft and stop it from sliding side to side. The spacer I got from Nick did not have a lot of meat left in the sides once milled out to fit the 2cm shaft so I made up a new one from some 1.25" bar I had in the scrap pile.



The roll pins prevent the spacer from spinning out of place during axle shaft installation, with the shafts in place they won't make contact with anything.



To keep it centered on the shaft I fabbed a couple of sleeves-



These will keep it fixed in the middle of the shaft between the spiders.





I drilled the sleeves to let lube get into the reliefs on the shaft to keep the spiders oiled. This may be overkill as the installed fit is not tight but it's not sloppy either, there's ~.030" play side to side which is fine with me, that's about the same as the Dana setup has.








All back together-



Just for fum I hooked juice up to the coil & it will indeed lock up if you rotate the coil around in relation to the body.

Next step- pull the axles, pop the dana c-thingie out, swap the ring gear over & then start the cursing

 

[scott milliner]

I ran into this problem when I put the Detroit Locker in my tapered axle housing. I see this solution could work for you.

The bad part of using a Detroit Locker is it don't have a cross shaft. My only solution was FF axles.

 

[Howard Eisenhauer]

Started into (& surprisingly enough finished) the axle teardown today.

Everybody's most dreaded job-



Which surprisingly took all of 4 seconds burping the impact gun to pop loose



Of course the axle didn't want to come out, this was the most time consuming element of the exercise, took all of a minute.



The other side want even faster

So the C-Thingie is out & torn down,




I pulled the bearings because they're toast & I wanted the shims.



Not sure what happened here, I had this thing open 5 or six years ago & they were fine then, only a few hundred miles on it since. It looks like water got in there but I'll be darned if I know where from






Had some time to kill so I made some setup bearings. They were not happy about that, took an absurdly long time & multiple cuts to get them there & killed a couple of cutters doing it but the fireworks were spectacular







That's it for today, tomorrow it's Fun With Re-Assembly

 

[Howard Eisenhauer]

I ran into this problem when I put the Detroit Locker in my tapered axle housing. I see this solution could work for you.

The bad part of using a Detroit Locker is it don't have a cross shaft. My only solution was FF axles.

I had a detroit locker in my possesion for a while, rare 10 spline unit & it had a center spacer










You're probably happier with the FF's though

 

[jeepdaddy2000]

What about instead of milling the spacer larger, you milled two flat facings the length of the cross shaft. The stock smaller diameter hole in the spacer would slide down the flats, keeping the spacer from rotating. Once the axles were installed and the bearing preload adjusted there wouldn't be enough room for the spacer to rotate accidentally.

 

[wheelie]

This just seems absurd to me........that a person would have to do all of this to make a part fit which is advertised to work for the desired application. What would the average Joe do? The guy without access or the ability to fabricate the parts you made. I'd be very P'd in your situation and pretty much hosed.

In any case, I'm impressed with your work and happy for you that you're getting it done.

 

[scott milliner]

This just seems absurd to me........that a person would have to do all of this to make a part fit which is advertised to work for the desired application.

This is making a part fit that doesn't belong. The spacer is used to set the end play on the axle shafts. To set them you need something for the axle shafts to butt up against.

 

[scott milliner]

I had a detroit locker in my possesion for a while, rare 10 spline unit & it had a center spacer
You're probably happier with the FF's though

Now you tell me.

 

[Howard Eisenhauer]

Now you tell me.

Should have asked me sooner

 

[Howard Eisenhauer]

This just seems absurd to me........t

Agreed, but I've had a couple of years to calm down. It browns me off that even after talking to them about this they're still advertising these things.

 

[Howard Eisenhauer]

What about instead of milling the spacer larger, you milled two flat facings the length of the cross shaft. The stock smaller diameter hole in the spacer would slide down the flats, keeping the spacer from rotating. Once the axles were installed and the bearing preload adjusted there wouldn't be enough room for the spacer to rotate accidentally.

Now you tell me.

 

[Howard Eisenhauer]

So yesterday was the day I confronted the issue that's discouraged me from this project for so long- getting the shims set up right on the Eaton.

Before I started man-handling that heavy object C-Thingie over my head in a limited space whilst prone on my back on a creeper that wanted to go that way while I was trying to insert the heavy object C-Thingie into the axle this way I was bright enough to check to see if there were any other subtle design feature differences from a regular D44 C-Thingie built into the it for the Aussie application.

A pretty cheesy test method but it allowed me to have some confidence that the locker would fit & the ring gear would be pretty much in the right spot.





Yes the bubble is not level but that's what it was showing on the lid of the parts washer.

On goes the ring gear & setup bearings.



And man-handling that heavy object C-Thingie over my head in a limited space whilst prone on my back on a creeper that wanted to go that way while I was trying to insert the heavy object C-Thingie this way, into the axle it goes.

Except it didn't.

I started off duplicating what was on the open carrier after discovering the old shims won't fit the new locker, the Eaton uses different bearings, apparently I had the foresight 4 years ago to buy a pack of the proper sized shims

Anyhow it would not fit

So I took out shims tried it with the screwdriver trick to measure the surplus space








Now if there's one thing I hate more than digging holes it's working with heavy object's up over my head in limited spaces whilst prone on my back on a creeper so when I measured 58 thou on one side & 28 on the other I had high hopes for a quick setup & done

No.

Seven times I had that thing hammered into the axle & seven times & fought it to get it out.

Each time working with the heavy object C-Thingie up over my head in limited space whilst prone on my back on a creeper that wanted to go that way while I was trying to insert the heavy object C-Thingie into the axle this way or going this way whilst trying to remove it that way.

I finally had an acceptable backlash @ 8 thou & what I'm calling a good pattern on the driven side (I purposely avoided looking at the coast side ) with 45/35 thou.





Out one final time & on with the good cones.

Note- if you spill coke on your bench & get a tiny unnoticed drop on the end of one finger of your nomex gloves that were a spur of the moment purchase 15 years ago & you never needed until now when you grab the bearing out of the 350 degree oven the tiny spot of coke *will* flash vapourize & burn the end of your finger

So next weekend final installation of the heavy object C-Thingie up over my head in limited space whilst prone on my back on a creeper that will want to go that way while I'm trying to insert the heavy object C-Thingie into the axle this way & then the axle shafts go back in & the brakes go back on.

That should be it.

Except for the wiring.

Which I haven't finalized how I want to run it anyhow.

 

[Muzikp]

Is it too late to call about the Antique Crazy Quilt Jewel Toned silk velvet with embroidery and fancy stitching? Might comfort you after creeper goes that way.