JustEmptyEachPocket

Hey everyone. I drilled and tapped the vent hole to install a brass fitting and I wanted to clean out the chips. I took the cover off the Dana 30 and found something disturbing. First off, there was metal chunks stuck to the magnet on the differential fill plug. Closer inspection showed they were maybe shim material. It looks like they went through the gears but being so thin they just floated over to the magnet. There was also some shim material sticking out from between the bearing and carrier.

That's not even the most disturbing part. I got checking everything over and found that someone installed the bearing caps wrong. The factory marks were there, but someone didn't pay attention when putting them back on. Supposedly this was a daily driver, but who really knows.

My questions are, what will the ramifications be by driving it this way? Is this axle junk? Can the bearing caps be put on correct and everything be fine? I doubt it, but worth the ask.

Thanks for reading.

dcollins3208

If the shims are trashed it's just a matter of time...

JustEmptyEachPocket

Is that what happens to them?

JustEmptyEachPocket

Just got a master rebuild kit in the mail. I am just going to rebuild it and put the caps back they way they are supposed to go. I am thinking that the caps being in wrong wont hurt the axle itself, just the bearings. We will see.