jeffmo

Hello all,

I am in the process of my first diff rebuild, D35 in a 91 XJ, and so far I would have to say things are going ok. I have made a couple of errors (learning opportunities) along the way and am waiting for some more parts to arrive (think new pinion nut and crush sleeve) and have gotten to a point where I have a question about shimming the carrier assembly for backlash.

When I removed the carrier assembly the first time, there were two thick spacers between the carrier bearings and the diff housing, one on each side. When I removed the old carrier bearings, there were no spacers between the carrier housing and the carrier bearings. Everything I have read up till now suggests that all Dana Spicer's have the carrier shims between the carrier housing and the carrier bearings.

As I start putting stuff back to gether and see that I am going to have to adjust the carrier for backlash, I see (I think) that with these two big thick spacers on the outside, I won't be able to shim the carrier to adjust the backlash. I can't see that it is possible. By mistake, I had installed the carrier bearings before I realized that the spacers go between the bearings and the carrier housing. At the moment, the carrier bearings are all the way against the carrier housing and the two thick spacers fit between the outer bearing race and the diff housing and there is no room to adjust the carrier assembly side to side for backlash. It is a tight fit back into the diff housing now. If I add spacers between the carrier housing and the bearings, the whole assembly would be wider and would not fit back in.

My question is, can I remove these two thick spacers on the outside and make up their thickness with shims that are installed in the correct location, between the carrier housing and the carrier bearings. That way, I can move shims to adjust the backlash. Can the outer race of the carrier bearing be installed directly against the diff housing or are those two thick spacers required?

Hope that all makes sense. Thanks in advance.

00t444e

Most Dana axles have the shims between the carrier and carrier bearings but the Dana 35 isn't like that, it uses outboard shims like most Ford and GM axles. You have to buy a shim kit that replaces the spacers.

jeffmo

Thanks for the response. I did receive a shim kit with the diff rebuild kit I purchased. So what I take away from your response is I can first measure the thickness of the outboard spacers, throw them away and make up that thickness with the shim kit. The diameter of the shim kit makes me believe that they should be installed between the carrier housing and the carrier bearings, which, means that the outer race of the carrier bearings will be in direct contact with the diff housing. All good?

tinytrax78

awg

yes, technically if the original shims or spacers were factory set, and bearings have a very precise tolerance, the new shims should be the same thickness as old
and to the OP, dont be throwing old spacers away until ur 100% sure all is good with the new setup

00t444e

Did you install a new carrier or gear set? If you are reusing the gears and carrier you should be able to reuse the factory spacers and the backlash will be correct. If you need to shim it to change the backlash you get rid of the factory spacers and get a shim kit that goes in place of the spacers, you don't put Dana 35 shims between carrier and carrier bearings, they weren't designed that way, and it would make it more difficult to set backlash because you will have to pull the bearings back off to adjust the shims like on a Dana 30 or 44. You need to get a super shim kit, it has a inner and outer piece that fit together and thinner shims go in between the two for adjustments then it all locks together as one piece so you aren't trying to line up a bunch of shims to install, I used them when I set up my Ford 10.5 and they worked great.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dana-35-Dif...78Lj:rk:2:pf:0

jeffmo

I didn't install a new carrier or gear set. When I first started this project, I knew there was way to much backlash. I did not measure it with a needle gauge but I could move it a fair bit. When I started putting the pinion shaft back together and into the diff housing, I used all the same pinion shims, which worked out to .040. With the pinion shaft shimmed there, there was way to much backlash, something like .019. Since I could no way of shimming the carrier with those big spacers in place, I started adding more shims to the pinion shaft until the backlash was .006. Great, but now my gear pattern was way off. Project stopped there.

I like your suggestion of the super shim kit. That is what I think I need to use to solve this issue.