I believe that I need to replace the axles or at the least repack the bearings in my Dana 44 Avanti differential. Since I am not familiar with the differential innards I thought it best to peruse the factory shop manual before beginning. A couple of things confuse me. The first is that my knowledge (limited though it may be) tells me that "clearance" and "end play" are basically interchangeable terms. And yet the Avanti shop manual says that in adjusting the end play by adding or removing shims to first "Bump the axle shaft with a heavy mallet to eliminate all clearances. Mount a dial indicator on the shaft and check end play". If all clearances are removed how can there be any end play to measure? What am I missing here? Also my shafts appear to have about .050" end play (hence a part of my reason for concern on the health of my bearings--apparently some clown has installed way too many shims) and hence the race would appear to ride too far out in the outer cup. Part of my confusion results from the fact that if I pull one drum and shaft out this .050" the other shaft appears to slide in that same amount. But this does not appear possible as the inner end of the shaft is merely splined to the side gear on that side and if moving one shaft causes the other shaft to move the opposite direction would appear to necessitate the side gear, the entire case, and the other shaft moving (which wouldn't seem possible since the shafts are just internally splined to the side gear). What gives here and what am I missing? Also, I would assume that a dial indicator is mandatory when adjusting this end play, or is another method available? It would also seem advisable to start the adjustment process with too many shims and ease up to the .006" end play figure, as starting with too few shims is going to drive the outer cup in too far necessitating starting all over again by first removing the shafts and cups. This would appear tricky and rather time consuming to accomplish, but then finding a Stude mechanic after 40 plus years could be rather time consuming also. HELP!!
wagone and the R2 Avanti
wagone and the R2 Avanti
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