I know that ujoints, axle shafts, and hubs blow for the "hardcore" people but how often have you blown a ring and pinion in a Dana 44, Dana 60, or GM 14 bolt and what ratio was it? And how difficult is it to fix it? Are any special tools needed?

I'm a Toyota guy who has loved the fact that the third is removable for a "quick" fix if needed(FJ40 pinions being known to blow)

Also, on the blow ujoints and shafts, what else was taken out? From what I've read, when a ujoint goes, it often takes out the ears of the shaft(s). Does this in turn take out the knuckle or FUBAR the housing?

i have never blown a ring and pinion, but when i had my TJ i would blow the u-joints in the passenger side.. they would take out the ears of the shafts and if i was really getting on it, i would blow my bottom ball joint.. and :eek: there goes the wheel off the vehicle.... needless to say, i got good at changing ball joints on the trail, of course that was on a dana 30, i got rid of the TJ and now I have a FJ40 with dana 60's and king pins...:rolleyes:

I blew a front toy 4.10 ring and pinion a couple years ago, but did not fix it on the trail. As mentioned, ujoints can flare the yokes, which make them not useable and sometimes unable to be removed. I've heard that alloy shafts hold up fine with stock joints, CTM's really don't break often enough to worry about it. Also as mentioned, if they (ujoint) really let loose, they can and will blow out a ball joint. Some of the toy guys running super birf's are losing their detroits when an inner shaft lets loose.

As far as changing a gearset in one of the mentioned axles on a trail, that could be tricky. To simply change a ring gear would not be too bad, but changing the pinion is where you'll run into problems, unless you have already "set" the gears and pressed the bearings on so all you had to do was simply swap them out. If this was the case, you'd want to have:
-basic tool kit (1/2" socket set)
-a socket big enough (right size) to remove the pinion yoke nut
-2 12-18" pry bars
- large rubber mallet
-bfh
-lock tite
-a 1/2" torque wrench would be nice
-for the 14 bolt, you'd want something to adjust the spanners to set the backlash, in which case you would also want a dial indicator.

Keep in mind, this is a best case scenario. Changing a gearset is something that should be done only if absolutely necessary. You could throw a gearset in there without checking the apttern, but depending how much and how hard you drive on it, you could wear through the hard face and effectively loose 2 gearsets. The list of tools used to set gears in a shop would include all of the above in addition to:
-Press
-clam shell and puller (for removing bearings)
-micrometer
-definitely a dial indicator
-definitely a torque wrench
-gear paint
-assorted shims
-assorted punches
- a bench vice comes in handy too

Toyota's and 9" have the very nice benfit of a pull out third member. This is of course the easiest way to swap a blown r&p.

Can't say I've heard of anyone breaking a D60 or 14Bolt R&P.

If I EVER did either, that's enough for me to put it on the trailer and head home w/o worrying about a trail fix ;)

Originally posted by bigdude
Can't say I've heard of anyone breaking a D60 or 14Bolt R&P.

If I EVER did either, that's enough for me to put it on the trailer and head home w/o worrying about a trail fix ;)

That's kind of the way I was looking at it.

I bust my D60, I'm headed back to the barn.:flipoff2:

Originally posted by bigdude
Can't say I've heard of anyone breaking a D60 or 14Bolt R&P.

If I EVER did either, that's enough for me to put it on the trailer and head home w/o worrying about a trail fix ;)

That is kind of what I thought.... OTOH, I know we have some crazy wheelers on PBB that can break about anything :-P

Last question then back to the pen and paper planning, what about rear axle shafts for Dana 60 and 14bolts? Do they break and if so, what is at risk(assume full float)?

anyone ever blown a 9" ring or pinion

Originally posted by Weezer
anyone ever blown a 9" ring or pinion

Where's rkcrawl?? :laughing: :flipoff2:

Originally posted by bigdude
Can't say I've heard of anyone breaking a D60 or 14Bolt R&P.

If I EVER did either, that's enough for me to put it on the trailer and head home w/o worrying about a trail fix ;)

Everything breaks :D

Originally posted by Weezer
anyone ever blown a 9" ring or pinion


Removed 6 teeth off the ring gear, Snapped one of the main caps in half, and ripped out the pinion support in the 3rd member. all at the same time.

I think the main cap broke leading to all the other failures. The detroit lived.

Originally posted by LAME


Everything breaks :D

I wouldn't run a wimpy D60 in the rear :flipoff2:

Originally posted by bigdude


I wouldn't run a wimpy D60 in the rear :flipoff2:

:laughing: Good stuff:D :flipoff2:

Originally posted by bigdude


I wouldn't run a wimpy D60 in the rear :flipoff2:


especially not one of those with the pinion in the wrong place :flipoff2:

Originally posted by Weezer
anyone ever blown a 9" ring or pinion

I didn't, but I was in my buddies Bronco when he did!

He beat the hell out of it all night and got on pavement and tried to light them up... BANG! no workie-workie!:(

He was running 35's with a LSD.

i have changed a ring and pinion on the trail. well ok it wasn't the trail but back at camp. we put the ring gear in the oven of my motorhome and boiled a pot of weason oil to drop the bearing into.

it was a toy 8" r@p 4:10 ratio

Originally posted by jopes



Removed 6 teeth off the ring gear, Snapped one of the main caps in half, and ripped out the pinion support in the 3rd member. all at the same time.

I think the main cap broke leading to all the other failures. The detroit lived.

What ratio?
what brand centersection and support?

Originally posted by Aggro


What ratio?
what brand centersection and support?


it was the stock 3.50:1 gears, Detroit, and stock 3rd member. I was out on sand dunes. It was a rough weekend for me :rolleyes:

Originally posted by jopes



it was the stock 3.50:1 gears, Detroit, and stock 3rd member. I was out on sand dunes. It was a rough weekend for me :rolleyes:

Were these gears set up receantly

had like 6 months of miles on them. it is also my daily driver.

Originally posted by jopes
had like 6 months of miles on them. it is also my daily driver.

go nodular or go home!!!
:flipoff2:

i snapped a 9" pinion in half in my 4.0L powered jeep. the pinion was probably 25 yrs old cause i never changed the gears after swapping in a EB 9.
needless to say i removed the rear d-shaft and just drove home with an awful whin coming from the rear end.

i saw pics of jason nuking a pinion on a toy center. here is the link i would ask Okcrawler for more details.

Click here (http://www.extreme4wheelin.com/images/joplin_2002/P8245252_m.JPG)