Well, it is a sad day for me. I asked in this forum about the driving noise I heard and we cam to the conclusion that it is probably the diff. Good news: It was the diff!

Bad news: Not in the way I expected.

When taking the diff apart a slurry of metal saturated oil came my way. Bad news. Especially since the last oil change was less than a thousand miles ago.

I then took out the axles and finally the carrier. My first confusion was that there were no shims under the left and right carrier bearings. Then I saw the REAL problem and the reason why there was so much noise.



That is the left carrier bearing race seat. Not pretty... These are the left carrier bearing and race:




As you can see they are completely shot.
My theory is that the right axle seal leaked and ran the diff dry. The bearing locked up and spun the race. Farmer Joe replaced the axle seal. Filled up the diff and continued to drive. Continuing to wreck the axle housing.

So, in conclusion, the diff rebuild turned into an axle replacement. I can not put in a new bearing, as the seat for the race has been hollowed out by the spinning race and will not provide enough clamping force. Meaning my two options are:

1. Get a machinist to take material off the bottom of the bearing cap, reinstall and bore through. Problem is. That is going to be freaking expensive and not many machinists in my area have a spindle long enough.

2. Get a new axle. Problem with that. I live in Germany and Dana 60 axles are not exactly the standard here. There definitely are sources for the over here, but I need help to identify/ Name my specific axle.

It is a Dana 60 axle with a 38 cast into the top of the diff housing. Has stabilizer bar mounts and 35 spline axles. Is there a specific code or something that would help me get that information across to people? What about differences across auto makes. is a Dana 60 out of a dodge going to work as well? And what years work?

Thank You

 

How badly worn is the area where the bearing race fits? If not too bad, consider using Loctite 660 Quick Metal:

https://www.henkel-adhesives.com/us/...ctite_660.html

It is designed just for applications like this, such as spun bearings and worn keyways. I have used it on damaged keyways and stuff is amazing.

 

It is pretty worn. I think I will dry to Dremel the ridge on the face where the shims go to make them flat again. And then try this stuff on the caps. Would I just put it in the cap and the other side in the diff housing, and bolt everything down?

 

In theory, yes. The main issue is how to ensure the bearing race lines up properly. This stuff may not work because of that. You will have to install and remove the carrier several times during the shimming process.

That's why I was asking about the wear. If the wear is light, and the race is only slightly loose, it should fall back into the same spot each time. But if the wear is such that the race won't always land in the same spot, this stuff probably won't work.

 

I see. The wear is only so much that bearing spun while it was dry and the bearing locked up. When I put the race back in the carrier and tightened the cap down, the race did not spin. So it is still in pretty good condition. Just wanting to make sure that it is not going to take off and spin again.

I think I am going to attempt to fix this axle, but still, try to find a new one as soon as I can come by one.

 

Ah, you are probably okay then. I was thinking the race was still loose with the cap tightened down. But since the race isn't loose like that, it should land in the same spot each time. In that case, I think this compound is definitely worth a try.

 

Just trying to save the axle until I can get a new one. Do you have an idea why there were no shims under the carrier races? Shouldn't there be one under each from the factory?

 

This seems very odd. When setting up a ring and pinion, one of the first steps is to set the carrier preload. This is done by calculating the combined thickness of shims needed under the two carrier bearings. You can start with all the shims on one side or the other, it doesn't really matter. In later steps, as you adjust the ring gear side to side, you move the shims but keep the same total thickness so the preload stays the same.

It makes me wonder if somebody else had been in there recently. It's hard to believe the preload and gear mesh pattern was even close without any shims. Perhaps that bearing failed due to a lack of preload.

How does the wear pattern look on the ring gear teeth? Reasonably centered?

 

I haven't put any marking compound on it yet but will do before reassembling. Looking at the ring gear, there are no rolled over edges to indicate that the pattern was running off the edge. However, the teeth are completely shiny, leading me to believe that the pattern sort of wandered. Which would make sense if the carrier was just kind of floating around.

The history of the truck is interesting. I am the second owner and know that it was driving as a daily driver/ farm truck. The owner kept an auto-record book, up to about 1995. He recorded everything with date and mileage. Oil changes, adding oil, gas fill-ups, like literally everything. Yet, there is not once mentioned that the rear diff oil was changed. I find it hard to believe that he recorded everything down to when he cleaned his window. but omitted diff oil changes. So I think in 112000 miles, They never changed the diff oil.
The truck drove 2000 miles off the record between 1995 and 2019 when I bought it. I think that in that time someone was in the diff. There was no gasket on the diff cover, but rather a crap ton of orange gasket maker. Also, the bearing caps are marked with a G and a G on the gasket surface.
So I think after the oil was never changed, and the wheel seal started to leak, they decided to mess around with the diff and probably caused this whole mess.

 

The shims may be behind the bearings themselves on the carrier. I think I remember someone saying when they replaced the gears, they took the old bearings and ground the id out some so they would slide on and off. Then they could take the carrier in and out and slide the bearings on and off to put in and take out shims. Since you are re-using your old gears, you should be able to re-use your shims, while checking side to side specs for the carrier and the backlash spec in the gears. Your mesh should be ok if you re-use the old shims. If the bearing race that was turning in the housing ate away the sidewall of the casting a little bit, then you may have a little too much side to side play in the carrier. If you measure this and it's out of spec, you could possible make your own shim out of brass stock and put it behind the bearing race.

 

Uff da!

Facing a moral crisis. Do I admit I was [W word] here, with all the unspeakable breakdown of society sure to follow, such as riots, mayhem in the streets, and a Nickelback reunion? If i so thoroughly upset the natural order of the world like that, I'm not sure I could live with my conscience. Perhaps it would be best for everybody if I just shifted blame elsewhere instead of admitting my error...

All seriousness aside, the shims do go between the carrier bearings and the carrier. They do NOT go between the races and the differential housing itself. I was [W word] and missed that little detail when I first read that post. I'm sure those shims are still installed in the correct place.

Glad I've got food, water, and ammo stockpiled in the basement. Time to barricade the doors and windows.

 

(text bolded by me)

Like kr98664 and Franklin are saying, from what I know the shims are usually behind the bearings, not under the races. From what you are saying I wouldn't bet on anything being right in that axle, but no shims behind the bearing races isn't wrong.

I've heard that about using setup bearings too. In fact I've heard it a lot and it seems to be the accepted way to get shim thickness figured out. But it didn't work for me. I got my shims dialed in with setup bearings, then put the real ones on and had no preload. The diff just slid in freely. I ended up having to add a bunch of shims to both sides and just figure it out again. I'm not saying you shouldn't try it with setup bearings, especially if you can get setup bearings fairly easily. But in my case I went to a lot of work to get bearings opened up so they'd slide on In hind sight I wish I'd have just started with the pressed-on ones and skipped the week or so that I spent messing around with the setup bearings.

I'd say your best bet would be a full-floating Sterling 10.25" out of an '86 - '97 F-250HD or F-350 (single rear wheel pickup, not dually and not a cab-and-chassis). You could also use the semi-float Sterling 10.25" out of a '86 - '96 F-250. The Sterlings are usually thought to be an upgrade over the Dana 60, and it gives you a lot of years to work with. Plus they will have the same spring spacing so they will bolt right in. I don't know that your driveshaft will fit with that axle. If not, I'd take the existing 'shaft and get it modified if necessary to fit and attach to the new axle. But you could also possibly find a driveshaft in a junkyard that would work.

Otherwise any rear axle out of any Ford, Dodge or Chevy truck before about 1999 with 8 lug wheels can be made to work. You might need to move the spring perches, and might need driveshaft work. I'd also check the fit of your wheels on a non-Ford axle. All of those trucks use an 8 on 6.5" bolt pattern, but there's a possibility that the center hole in the wheel is a different size. I THINK they'll work, but I can't guarantee it.

A axle out of a van might also work, but I think that at least Ford vans don't have the driveline centered in the frame, so the diff is offset slightly to one side. That would make the driveshaft go at a slight angle across the truck which wouldn't be a huge problem.

 

I've also had mixed results with set-up bearings. You can find them commercially available for some sizes, with a slightly oversized inner note for an easy slip fit. But if you try making them yourself, good luck. The material is too hard to cut with ordinary tooling on a metal lathe. Even expensive carbide tooling barely makes a dent.

I tried using a brake cylinder hone, to grind away the bore instead of cutting. Mostly this just wore down the stones and left the bearings with a sloppy bellmouth-shaped bore.

So in hindsight, for all that aggravation, it's probably easier to just use the new bearings.

If you do use set-up bearings, measure the assembled stack height of the bearing and race together. You'll need a micrometer or very accurate calipers. Compare this stack height to the new bearings and races. Expect to find up to .010" difference. Adjust the final shim packs to compensate for this difference.

 

This is kind of a news flash for me tbh. I watched a ton of videos on youtube about setting up diffs on Dana 60 axles and they all had shims between the race and the housing. It would make a lot more sense if the shims are under the bearings.

 

It seems that there is another problem connected with the fact that the shims are under the bearing. If you look at the first picture in my post:




The bearing race now sits deeper in that groove that it carved. How should I go about fixing that? Just let the bearing race sit in there and use shims under the bearing to counter the fact that the race is sitting deeper in the housing, or get something to shim the Housing back up?