'65 GMC 1500 project. From the Netherlands

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Continuing the Dana 60 rebuild. The carrier bearing spun, its damage has been repaired by means of a sleeve. See pictures. The carrier was set up in the lathe using the 4-jaw and a tool was made to use the live center of the lathe in the spider gear bore.

The sleeve was made, and the damaged area of the carrier was undercut. The sleeve has a .0004" press fit, which is very light to avoid unnecessary tension on the sleeve as the final wall thickness is about .080" at the final dimension.

The sleeve was pressed on and secured additionally with LocTite 648. The carrier was then indicated again on the lathe and turned to the final size for the press fit of the bearing. I had some chatter at the last cuts, but I always finish the lathe work around .002" oversize and then use emery cloth to obtain the final dimension. I prefer this method because I'm able to remove the peaks of the material left by the turning operation, which results in a much-improved press fit. The last picture shows the final product. I also added the factory chamfer.

I also disassembled the carrier to clean all the parts, which was then reassembled with assembly lube. The new ring gear was also installed with new bolts and green LocTite.

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The first picture looks like the inside of a sewer pipe! But it turns out to be the axle tube! An enormous amount of crud and rust gathered in there over the years. Using rags and rods and lots of brake cleaner, the axle tubes were cleaned up. You can see how much rust gathered in the carrier housing in the next picture.

I made sure to clear out the vent on the right axle tube, I believe it was blocked due to the crud. Planning to go through the tubes one more time using a rotating wirewheel on a drill to break loose the last amounts of crud.

The housing or pumpkin wasn't much better. The thick black paste coated the bore. The best method was a rotating wirewheel mounted on a die grinder, which loosened up the crud and left a cast iron gray finish.

Lastly, the old bearings for the carrier were turned into setup bearings, and all the shim packages were measured and recorded. The old pinion-bearing cup OD was ground down as well to aid in pinion depth setup.

The old pinion did not have a press fit for the pinion bearing closest to the yoke, as it is clamped in place by the yoke and the shims. The new pinion does have a press fit there. To aid in setup, the press fit of the pinion will be turned into a sliding fit like the original.

Now the setup may begin.

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First time setting up gears. Quite the learning experience. Been busy with it for about 1 1/2 days, restarted from the original shims 2 times. This pinion had no depth marking, so I assumed it to be 0. Kept adding pinion shims while I had to decrease pinion depth. The contact pattern threw me off because I did not apply enough drag on the carrier when testing. Anyway, almost there now. Just need to move my pattern a little more to the heel and close up the backlash some, it is at .010" now.

Then I'll add the preload shims to the carrier. When I'm satisfied I'll install the new bearings on the carrier and pinion, and I can recheck my pattern and set the pinion preload.

Planning to fully clean the housing one more time before installing everything for the last time.

I've ordered new U bolts and leaf spring bushings from Stengel Bros. I got the tip from James, thank you for that.

Planning to remove one leaf from the leaf spring package. I'll leave the overload springs in, don't want to change a lot from stock, but remove one leaf to see if the rear suspension improves.

The front leaf spring bolt has a nut in a difficult-to-reach place. Need to bend a wrench 90 degrees in order to reach the nut. Can't do it any other way with the bed installed.

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Here is the completed Dana 60 setup. Completed this quite a few days ago but have been busy with other stuff.

Did some more fine tweaking to the setup using the setup bearings. Could get some, but not many improvements to the pattern I've posted before. If these were OEM Dana gears it would have probably shown a much better pattern.
I could not shift the drive pattern closer to the root as the backlash would suffer in that case. When I was satisfied, I installed the new bearings. The carrier preload was also added. It was .006" total. (2 shims of .003", 1 on each side)
The new bearings shifted the pattern a little to the toe side. The backlash is .005". I set it up on the tight side of the spec as I suspect that it will wear in.

Before installing everything for the last time, I cleaned the housing one more time. Using a steel wire brush on a couple of extensions for wood drill bits, and a drill to drive it, the last crap in the axle tubes was cleaned out.
I then installed the new bearing cup for the pinion, with the correct slinger and shims. The pinion preload was then set at 25 inch pounds. To torque the pinion nut I made a simple tool from a piece of metal strip. Prefer this method to ruining my new yoke with a big pipe wrench (that I didn't have in the first place) I bought a 2nd hand inch-pound dial indicating torque wrench to set the preload.
The pinion seal, new pinion nut and washer, and pinion seal were then installed. I installed the new carrier and torqued the caps to spec.

To catch all the metal particles from the break-in, I've glued in two neodymium magnets next to the carrier. The sheet metal cover was then installed. Before the final installation, I straightened it as best as possible. It always leaked some with the gasket due to the bolts deforming the holes. I also ran a file over the gasket surface and it showed a lot of burrs and displaced metal. This may be another source of leakage. I've read of good experiences where people omitted the gasket entirely and only used RTV. I might try this after the break-in.

Break-in will consist of 20 miles of driving and a complete cool of the differential. I'll repeat this once. Then 500 miles of gentle driving, before draining the break-in oil and topping off with fresh oil. I'll remove the cover and clean the magnets at this time as well and recheck the backlash and pattern.

The next task is to rebuild the leaf springs. Stengel Bros supplied new U bolts and bushings. Hope to start tomorrow.

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Here is a picture of the final assembly. Note the neodymium magnets, placed to the right of the carrier. (The picture is upside down when you click on it but in proper orientation in the thumbnail)

[tbucketnut]

Well done David.
That pattern looks pretty spot on to me on both drive/coast.
Sometimes it just takes more time to go after the pinion depth to get it looking good on the gear surfaces. I have the same feelings on the backlash .005 seems like a real good setup on new gears - it definitely will wear in a couple or few thousands. Those gears should be nice and quiet if NOS-IMHO. I have found sometimes using some aftermarket brands a little gear noise is still possible with good clearance setups, however it is benign.

I recently did 2- 3.55 setups on 1952 and 1953 pickups with aftermarket gear sets and they both were completely quiet. One could argue you couldn't hear it because of the noisy tires and suspension on one of the trucks though.Patterns are similar to yours.

Again well done, your methods, dedication and persistence to the setup process are to be commended.

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Originally Posted by tbucketnut

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Well done David.
That pattern looks pretty spot on to me on both drive/coast.
Sometimes it just takes more time to go after the pinion depth to get it looking good on the gear surfaces. I have the same feelings on the backlash .005 seems like a real good setup on new gears - it definitely will wear in a couple or few thousands. Those gears should be nice and quiet if NOS-IMHO. I have found sometimes using some aftermarket brands a little gear noise is still possible with good clearance setups, however it is benign.

I recently did 2- 3.55 setups on 1952 and 1953 pickups with aftermarket gear sets and they both were completely quiet. One could argue you couldn't hear it because of the noisy tires and suspension on one of the trucks though.Patterns are similar to yours.

Again well done, your methods, dedication and persistence to the setup process are to be commended.

Appreciate it Steve! These are DANA SVL gears. They are marketed by DANA but made in India - did quite a bit of research on these gears before buying them. Couldn't find anything bad about them. The backlash is nice and consistent and the pattern is too. They have a phosphate coating but the machining is quite nice I must say. Unfortunately no depth marking on the pinion. Couldn't pass this set + rebuild kit up, as it was for sale in Germany.

Anyway, otherwise I would have settled for DoctorDiff's Dana 60 3.23 gears and rebuild kit.

Had to look up what benign meant! Running 14-inch turbo mufflers that produce a nice sound; don't think a little noise will bother me soon. I am always on the listen for any bad noises though...

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Started on the leaf springs today.

The blocks that secure the axle from underneath were full of dirt and rust when I pulled them. I've cleaned out all the hard rust using a needle scaler and drilled out the small 3/8" drain holes to 3/4", ensuring no crap can build up in these blocks anymore and cause rust issues!

The second photo shows the worst bearing that I pulled out of the Dana. This is the ring gear side carrier bearing. Note the extensive spalling on the race and rolling elements. The whole race is pitted as well, I believe due to metal contamination in the oil.

Picture 3 shows the first leaf spring for disassembly. Using a little propane torch action and some WD40 the center bolt broke loose, I also loosened up the straps at the end. The old bushings were pressed out. Stengel Bros supplied new bushings which are identical to the old bushings! Very happy with them and the company. The article number for the bushings is MR164.

Before disassembly, I used a center punch to mark all the springs for proper orientation.

Picture 5 shows the front leaf spring bolt. Ended up buying a cheap wrench to use on the nut, worked quite well. Took a long pipe and some persuasion to break them loose! The other side of the leaf spring bolt was already loose... when I bought the truck. I knew about this but forgot. The nut did keep everything in place but did not exert any axial force required to keep the bolt and bushing in place - it oblonged the hole quite a bit. Forgot to take a photo... Going to build the area up with welding to restore it.

Next up: wire-wheel everything to clean up the rust, apply a rust converter, and cover them in chassis paint. Someone I know used the chassis paint on the springs as well and it is still in place, was skeptical at first whether it would hold up to the spring action of the leaf, but it seems to perform quite well. I'll remove one leaf from the package as I said before. Before reassembly, I'll also apply waterproof grease between the leaf springs.

I've ordered new 3/8 and 5/8 UNF bolts and locknuts locally to replace the leaf spring bolts and center bolts. I can easily convert a hex bolt to a center bolt by modifying the head in the lathe. Forgot to order those from Stengel Bros, oh well.

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Here is are the new bushings compared to the old.

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Used a wirewheel on the angle grinder to remove the rust. For the leaf springs clamps securing the upper 3 springs, I heated them and let them slowly cool down to remove all the stresses from bending. After that, a rust converter was applied. This was allowed to dry for a couple of days.

A layer of 2K chassis paint followed. All the new bushings were pressed in, which went very well. The leaf springs were reassembled. Water-resistant, extreme-pressure grease was applied on each leaf before assembly. I use the vice to press the clamps back in place. None of them showed any signs of fatigue or cracking.

All springs were put back in the order that they came from. I left out the lowest leaf from the standard springs, so there are 6 instead of 7 in the package now.

Because of the temperature outside, I will do the welding job on the oblong holes later, when I have it inside again. Makes everything much easier. Right now it is freezing here. Only need to remove the 2 front bolts and raise the axle to access it.

Hope to install the rear axle tomorrow. The temperature is not ideal, but as long as the wind doesn't blow too much we should be fine.

I do drive it in the winter but not when it is wet or when there is wet salt on the roads.

Still need to redo the front suspension as well. We'll see when there is space inside the workshop.