andrewjohnson24

I have a question that I am finding out to be impossible, but I am trying to put a bearing kit in my 1995 jeep grand Cherokee with a dana 30 front differential with the 3.73 gear ratio and I have the 5.2 v8. My question is how many shims do I put in each side? because as it is now most are gone, and do these bearing have to be pressed on. Also is there a video on how to do this or a diagram to fallow? I have the hynes fix it book but there is nothing in it about the front differential.

Gee oh Dee

Have you done differential work before?

There is a website about doing gear work, I'll see if I can find the link...

Gee oh Dee

http://www.pirate4x4.com/articles/te...sta/Gear_Setup

Here is Pirates info, not what I was thinking, but they had shim info there so it should help.

andrewjohnson24

I have done differential work before but nothing as old as this, usually newer vehicles with 50 60 thousand miles on them but none with 245000 on it. the differential has a lot of wear on it nothing like I have seen before but they are self explanatory if you take them apart piece by piece. I usually have he bearings pressed on due to being around presses all day, but a guy said to me you don't have to press them on just tap them into place with a socket.

dave1123

From what I know about differentials, the pinion bearings and shims set the pinion depth of contact and the carrier side shims set the backlash. You can use Plastiguage to measure the backlash, but a dial indicator is better.

I will say the Pirate website write-up is about the most complete and accurate one I've ever seen. The only difference is the Dana 30 uses a crush sleeve to set pinion bearing preload instead of shims. This is not what I expected from Pirate, because I've heard some people say they don't like the website. I think it's time for me to do some research.

SeriousOffroad

Every axle is different....every single one.

There is no predetermined shim thickness.

YOU MUST MEASURE AND ADJUST AS NEEDED.