When changing the oil of my front d44 I found some light scuffing on some of the ring gear teeth. When checking everything else i found all ring gear bolts to be only finger-tight, and the loosest (sp?) ones were behind the scuffed teeth. What could cause this ?

I set up this r&p myself some 9 months ago, and then thought i had everything spot on. I vaguely remember the kit coming with a note mentioning the bolts were special self-locking bolts, and that the old bolts should be discarded, which i did.

For now i loctited (nutlock) the bolts, and put them back in. Hopefully they'll stay in this time, cuz' i think this could've grown intop a very costly problem. I consider myself lucky, for now.

I awlways lock-tite them to begin with, then torque the shit out of them. It's hard for lock-tite to work when the carrier is soaked in oil though.

I really don't even think that most diff shops use lock-tite though. I could be wrong. (I'm sure I am!) What did you torqe them down to? I think it should be like 130 ft lbs or somthing crazy like that.

Jeff

Use locktite. My 44 setup kit even came with a tube of locktite. Definately a good idea for the ring gear.

Thanks guys.

...and Jeff, i did torque 'em to specs. I forgot the exact number (i'm one of those types that even forgets his own phone number ;) ) It was high though, considering the bolt size. I'll check them again after a few hundred miles (or an afternoon in mud), and if the nutlock didn't hold, i'll try either studlock or bearing-retainer. the latter should be oil-tolerant., iirc.