I have a dana 44 rear, after about 5 hours of beating, grinding and sawzawing, I finally have my welded spider gears removed.

I installed my mini spool. Now when I went to install the pin in the carrier, I finally noticed my pin was held in with c clips rather then a set screw.. Now with the mini spool installed, I have no way to put the clips in to hold the pin in place...


Any ideas? I may end up welding the pin in place.

 

19sp D44?

Get another carrier, one that is the typical roll pin retainer style?

 

It's a 30 spline d44 rear.

 

If you are reusing the carrier that had welded spiders, I'm guessing they welded the spiders to the carrier unless they didn't know what they were doing, you need to replace the carrier. I'm guessing you have grinded some of it away and the heat from welding could have distorted the shape of it as well. Curious as to why you are replacing welded spiders with a mini spool. The work exactly the same and if done right the welded spiders will be stronger. I don't run a center pin in my 60 rear so that if and when I break a shaft I can pull the other side and use a piece of rebar to knock out the broken bit. Much easier than a full disassembly.

 

Then previous owner of the axle did not weld the gears to the carrier. I replaced it due to the welds cracking.

It's all done now and has replaced the junk 35 that was under the xj. I welded the pin in place, if it breaks I'll replace the carrier with a full spool.

Works well and has ten factory shafts so hopefully it won't give me any problems on the trails.

Going from a open30/open35 to a locked30/mini spooled44 is like having a whole new rig.. Should have done this a long time ago!

 

You really should have used a full spool in the D44 to begin with, they do not cost all that much really, its all labor.

 

Few of my friends use mini spools in there rigs without issues, thought I'd give it a shot.

Anyways, been beating on it with 36" TSL's, holding up fine so far!