Pat's Willys Pages

Dana 44 Cleanup

When I pulled the rearend off of the frame of my Wagon it had already been powerwashed and sandblasted. When I got it down to work on it the first thing I did was clean it up a bit more using a scraper and a wire wheel on the grinder. As you can see from this picture the rearend was a nasty mess when I first got it. After sandblasting it, it looked something like this.

As you can see that got it pretty clean, except for a few spots where I didn't pay close enough attention to. There I just cleaned up with the wire wheel and it was as good as new.

At this point I still hadn't taken the cover off of the back and didn't know what my gears were going to look like. You can see in the picture above that I had drained the oil out.. I recommend letting it drain for a while as it is kind of thick and takes a few minutes. (hours) When I pulled the cover off this is what greeted me.

Not bad for 50 years of abuse. The teeth were all there as I turned it around, nothing was chipped or cracked or anything. And the wear pattern was in the center of each tooth, like it is supposed to be, so I decided I wouldn't take it apart any further, except to remove the axles because if it looks this good, there is no sense in having to readjust everything to get it right again.

I attempted to remove the axles, but they were being held in by the race on either side. To remove them I put the nut back on the axle, along with the washer. I tightened the nut up so if I missed with my punch I wouldn't bang any threads up, and I placed a punch on the washer and beat on it to get the axle out. Slowly the axle came out along with the race that was holding it in. One look at the race and we knew we had to replace the bearings, it was marred up and had black lines on it like the bearing had slammed into it as it went down the road. The lines feel like they are dug into the race, you can feel the pits. I think that there was too much shim between the backing plate and the axle housing, allowing the axles to move back and forth too much. So I bought new bearings and races, and put them on. To remove the bearings put a long flat punch on the bearing and drive it off. Putting the new one back on is just the opposite, you just have to make sure that you put the bearing on the right way, straight, and don't miss with your punch. I'll put a picture of the race up as soon as I get one that turns out, I'm having problems with it right now, I'll try again later tonight.

I don't trust my 50 year old oil seals, so I ordered a new pinon, and 2 new inner axle seals. They only cost a couple of dollars each and should keep the oil in the rear end where it belongs, instead of draining out the end of the axles... To get them out just do whatever it takes, I have this neat C-clamp that I made that worked really good, it doesn't matter if you ruin the seals as you will be replacing them. Just take care not to mar everything up too much. When installing the new pinon seal I just used my all purpose BFH and tapped lightly all around the seal to get it in. The inner axle oil seals a bit different, as you must tap on them VERY lightly with a small hammer and then take a punch and tap them in the rest of the way. Make sure that the punch has a flat end, if it is pointed at all you will just perforate your new seal and defeat the purpose.

After the seal replacement it's just a matter of putting everything back together again. I first put the axles in and put in the new races. I tapped the first race in flush with the end of the axle housing and then put the other axle in and tapped that race in until the two both stuck out the same amount. Clean everything up and put the cover back on. I repainted the cover before putting it on, so I would have paint beneath the heads of the bolts, but that was just because I had plenty of time and wanted it to look good. I put all the bolts in and tightened them up, except I didn't tighten the bolt that holds the tag identifying the gear ration up all the way because I wanted to paint the axle black and then put the tag on so you could still read the tag if you needed to.

So that I would cover everything I primed and painted the pinon yoke while it was off. I taped off the pinon shaft and the axle shafts while painting so I didn't cover their surfaces in black. The last thing to do was put the pinon yoke back on and now it's ready for the brakes to get put back on.

Go to the next page for pictures of the axle after it was painted black.


		Pat's Willys Pages
		Dana 44 Cleanup When I pulled the rearend off of the frame of my Wagon it had already been powerwashed and sandblasted. When I got it down to work on it the first thing I did was clean it up a bit more using a scraper and a wire wheel on the grinder. As you can see from this picture the rearend was a nasty mess when I first got it. After sandblasting it, it looked something like this. As you can see that got it pretty clean, except for a few spots where I didn't pay close enough attention to. There I just cleaned up with the wire wheel and it was as good as new. At this point I still hadn't taken the cover off of the back and didn't know what my gears were going to look like. You can see in the picture above that I had drained the oil out.. I recommend letting it drain for a while as it is kind of thick and takes a few minutes. (hours) When I pulled the cover off this is what greeted me. Not bad for 50 years of abuse. The teeth were all there as I turned it around, nothing was chipped or cracked or anything. And the wear pattern was in the center of each tooth, like it is supposed to be, so I decided I wouldn't take it apart any further, except to remove the axles because if it looks this good, there is no sense in having to readjust everything to get it right again. I attempted to remove the axles, but they were being held in by the race on either side. To remove them I put the nut back on the axle, along with the washer. I tightened the nut up so if I missed with my punch I wouldn't bang any threads up, and I placed a punch on the washer and beat on it to get the axle out. Slowly the axle came out along with the race that was holding it in. One look at the race and we knew we had to replace the bearings, it was marred up and had black lines on it like the bearing had slammed into it as it went down the road. The lines feel like they are dug into the race, you can feel the pits. I think that there was too much shim between the backing plate and the axle housing, allowing the axles to move back and forth too much. So I bought new bearings and races, and put them on. To remove the bearings put a long flat punch on the bearing and drive it off. Putting the new one back on is just the opposite, you just have to make sure that you put the bearing on the right way, straight, and don't miss with your punch. I'll put a picture of the race up as soon as I get one that turns out, I'm having problems with it right now, I'll try again later tonight. I don't trust my 50 year old oil seals, so I ordered a new pinon, and 2 new inner axle seals. They only cost a couple of dollars each and should keep the oil in the rear end where it belongs, instead of draining out the end of the axles... To get them out just do whatever it takes, I have this neat C-clamp that I made that worked really good, it doesn't matter if you ruin the seals as you will be replacing them. Just take care not to mar everything up too much. When installing the new pinon seal I just used my all purpose BFH and tapped lightly all around the seal to get it in. The inner axle oil seals a bit different, as you must tap on them VERY lightly with a small hammer and then take a punch and tap them in the rest of the way. Make sure that the punch has a flat end, if it is pointed at all you will just perforate your new seal and defeat the purpose. After the seal replacement it's just a matter of putting everything back together again. I first put the axles in and put in the new races. I tapped the first race in flush with the end of the axle housing and then put the other axle in and tapped that race in until the two both stuck out the same amount. Clean everything up and put the cover back on. I repainted the cover before putting it on, so I would have paint beneath the heads of the bolts, but that was just because I had plenty of time and wanted it to look good. I put all the bolts in and tightened them up, except I didn't tighten the bolt that holds the tag identifying the gear ration up all the way because I wanted to paint the axle black and then put the tag on so you could still read the tag if you needed to. So that I would cover everything I primed and painted the pinon yoke while it was off. I taped off the pinon shaft and the axle shafts while painting so I didn't cover their surfaces in black. The last thing to do was put the pinon yoke back on and now it's ready for the brakes to get put back on. Go to the next page for pictures of the axle after it was painted black.