tearing the dana 35 apart

[hockeyryan]

hey so im gonna be redoing my housing and gears this weekend. and i want it to go as smoothly as possible so what do u guys recommed doing for prep work. i have/will be spraying the nuts and bolts through out the week just so that part is hopefully not gonna be a problem. anything else?

thanks

 

[4x4junkie]

Use heat (propane torch) on the radius arm-to-axle beam bolts if you're taking those apart (helps release the factory Loctite, lessening the chance of the threaded bung inside the beam busting free).

Get a slide hammer & adapter to pull the spindles off, and have something on hand for separating the lower balljoints (pickle fork, etc). Everything else on it should be pretty easy.

Hope that helps

 

[brinker88]

If he's just doing gears/housing, he shouldnt have to take the knuckles off...

Here's my writeup on removal of the Dana 35 third member

http://www.fordrangerforum.com/how-submissions/25668-how-replace-3rd-member-twin-traction-beam-d35.html

 

[bobbywalter]

If he's just doing gears/housing, he shouldnt have to take the knuckles off...

Here's my writeup on removal of the Dana 35 third member

http://www.fordrangerforum.com/how-submissions/25668-how-replace-3rd-member-twin-traction-beam-d35.html

damn. stock sucks.
worked on some michigan rusted stock junk recently and hated it.


takes 50 min to an hour and ten min to swap out spiders/side gears if you have duff arms and 4 in or better lift after you do it a few times.....with two jacks or winched up a tree and dropping the pivot bolt i can leave the wheels on and do it....but it took longer in the hole we were in...



if you wheel it...notching the arm is a bad idea.

i busted the fawk out of the beams and early on arms...no problems initially but if you dont have a nice hardened washer and torque the hell out of it when you put it together...dont jump it.

 

[hockeyryan]

ugh i knew it was gonna be a lot of work.
looks like im gonna have fun

hey brinker88how long did it take you to do it? im hopeing i could have it done for sunday.

thanks

 

[clifford97]

Pixx!!! Lol

 

[bobbywalter]

if you bust your axles all the time it dont take long at all. its always apart



if your shit is stock and never been apart...or not in 5-10 years, buy a torch......


do you have a lift?

i just refreshed one and it took all day....and the torch helped....had to replace the pinch bolts, radius arm brackets, pivot bushings, brakes bearings, balljoints etc...


need to do all the spring hangers next....

 

[hockeyryan]

the farthest i have gone into the front is the wheel bearings so im nervous to do this. it should have been taken apart sometime, i bought it a year and a half ago with the 4" lift already in it.

 

[bobbywalter]

you should be fine then if its only been a few years.

i tap the spindles off with an extra fat nut....some of them are fat bastards and i keep them around....and glad i do because i needed it....just tread it on and jam it up with a spare small one and tap it up down left right till it loosens and pop a driver/chisel in one side and tap it so it pops off.


clean it all up with a wire wheel/grinder/drill put new inner bearing in it, dope it all up with antisize when you put the diff back in and reassemble.



while the diff is out you may want to mod it with a drain hole......whether through one of the lower mounting holes....or drill and tap a plug under it.

 

[hockeyryan]

well i just picked up the new housing n gears so i get to start tearing the dana 35 apart in minus 90mins hopefully it goes well and ill have it done by the end of the night

 

[hockeyryan]

well i got it done yesterday but every time while im in 4x4 turning there is a clunking noise so next weekend im gonna do the ujoints and grind down the shafts a little. i hope that eliminates that problem