ARB rotating seal housing on Dana 44 (Solved)

[Mikes Early Bronco]

Good evening all,
Please forgive me as I’ve only had an hour each week to pick at this D44 rebuild. It’s been a very slow process. Anyhow, I saw an interesting video with a tech from ARB. He explained why the seal housing on the D44 needs to float because the carrier journal moves as there’s torque placed on the gears. The seal housing needs to move with it to preserve the seals themselves. A lot of things made sense when I heard that. It still didn’t answer the question of how to keep it from rotating forward and pulling on the copper air line. It doesn’t get secured under the bearing cap.

If I can break away tomorrow I’m going to call ARB. As I’m enjoying some heat during my dinner break at work, I thought I’d make a post for discussion. I only found a similar post for a 9” which doesn’t answer the question either. Thanks. Hope everyone’s got those wood stoves fired up this week.

 

[Mikes Early Bronco]

I just got off the phone with a tech from ARB. He advised that the rotation is normal per design. Well, I have axle shafts on their way so hopefully I’ll have this thing buttoned up soon. Still have to blast and epoxy the knuckles.

 

[Mikes Early Bronco]

Update: I went with what I was advised from ARB. When I engaged the locker, the housing rotated and broke the copper line from the housing. Back to square one. I think I’ll align a groove on the axle housing and seal housing, then add a woodruff key on a detent spring attached to the carrier bearing cap.

Still blown away that they never designed a way to secure the seal housing.

 

[DirtDonk]

Interesting. Been a long time since I dealt with any ARB products. But I don’t remember any that ever tore off the copper line.
Did it break where it goes into the casting of the differential housing? Or down at the bearing/seal housing itself? I seem to remember a big blob of solder there?

 

[Mikes Early Bronco]

Interesting. Been a long time since I dealt with any ARB products. But I don’t remember any that ever tore off the copper line.
Did it break where it goes into the casting of the differential housing? Or down at the bearing/seal housing itself? I seem to remember a big blob of solder there?

Yes it was where the blob of solder was. I’ve read four accounts where this is happening. It seems like others have smashed master shims in so hard that they are way beyond factory specs. I tried it. It still spun when the air was activated, and end float tolerance was way out of spec. The carrier bearings were under too much pressure for me to be comfortable with. Everything‘s oriented properly because I read that in one case someone had the seal housing on backwards. And another one, the bearing caps flipped. Everything‘s in the way it’s supposed to be and seals are in straight.

Today I’m going to work on a key that uses two lugs to fit on either side of that soldered blob because there’s more room beyond that until you hit the seal housing’s recessed wall. I already have a cut out in the axle housing where the tube face meets the seal housing (picture attached). I’m going to align the two and see if I can make something reliable, but removable because once it would be locked in and if I were to weld it, it would be somewhat permanent. Still removable, but I would have to grind tack welds. That would be worst case scenario, but if I can make something temporary so I could pull the carrier in and out that would be acceptable at this point. If I do that, then I’ll be able to keep everything within spec.

In the pic below, I had to adjust some filters to take out the shadow, but you can see how the two cut outs would align for a key. Bearing caps are off for viewing purposes but it does the same when they are installed.

 

[Mikes Early Bronco]

So today I came up with an easy solution that worked great! I welded and clearanced two lugs on the seal housing (pic attached). One lug meets the top deck of the carrier bearing cap and the other at the bottom deck. Still allows a slight bit of movement for torque at the carrier (seal preservation) but completely solved the rotation issue and keeps the copper safe. And I can keep all tolerances within factory spec!

Hope this helps the next guy when he searches five years from now. Cheers.

 

[DirtDonk]

Wow, fantastic!
Of course, nobody should have to go through that. And if that’s the solution, they should be made right into the bearing housing.
Did you send pictures to ARB?
And hopefully they hold up under all circumstances. I guess if nothing is too tight, there shouldn’t be that much force on them.

 

[Apogee]

So today I came up with an easy solution that worked great! I welded and clearanced two lugs on the seal housing (pic attached). One lug meets the top deck of the carrier bearing cap and the other at the bottom deck. Still allows a slight bit of movement for torque at the carrier (seal preservation) but completely solved the rotation issue and keeps the copper safe. And I can keep all tolerances within factory spec!

Hope this helps the next guy when he searches five years from now. Cheers.

Did you have to clearance the bearing caps, or are the little anti-rotation bosses sized and positioned such that that is not necessary? Setting up my ARB and gears in my HP D44 is on my to-do list, so I'm going to be staring down that barrel of that gun shortly.

 

[73azbronco]

im gonna need to dig into this, my rear is not locking, never has. never had time to look. this year though.

 

[Mikes Early Bronco]

Did you have to clearance the bearing caps, or are the little anti-rotation bosses sized and positioned such that that is not necessary? Setting up my ARB and gears in my HP D44 is on my to-do list, so I'm going to be staring down that barrel of that gun shortly.

As long as you stay on one half of the seal housing (pic attached), your good. The under portion of the cap is slightly curved so the lack of clearance is a bit deceiving. I made sure I had just the slightest movement in the seal housing when the caps were tightened. I had to install and adjust a few times. One time I added metal. Well worth the peace of mind. Tomorrow I’ll post a diagram with degrees for a starting point. I welded low, with the flat side of the seal down, on a flat piece of brass.

 

[Mikes Early Bronco]

Wow, fantastic!
Of course, nobody should have to go through that. And if that’s the solution, they should be made right into the bearing housing.
Did you send pictures to ARB?
And hopefully they hold up under all circumstances. I guess if nothing is too tight, there shouldn’t be that much force on them.

So far I’ve learned that there are some tight tolerances to find. Too much material and it puts too much pressure on the seals. Too little and there’s excessive play where the copper tube rises over the ring gear. Once you find the sweet spot there is inly drag from the seals riding on the journal. Very minimal force. And setup needs to be measured with seals in. The housing falls if you don’t.

 

[bmc69]

Weird. I've installed quite a few ARBs in D44s and never once had any issues like that.

 

[Mikes Early Bronco]

Weird. I've installed quite a few ARBs in D44s and never once had any issues like that.

It’s odd. At first I didn’t notice anything until I activated the locker and rotated the pinion. Thought maybe seals were twisted. They were perfectly fine. I was going to shim it way past factory spec but once bearings wear and end float relaxes, I can’t see how the seal housing stays put.

 

[Mikes Early Bronco]

After filing, adding some more metal, than filing again, I got it to where there’s .003” of freeplay for the housing to float. Virtually unnoticeable. It’s working flawless now!

 

[Mikes Early Bronco]

Wow, fantastic!
Of course, nobody should have to go through that. And if that’s the solution, they should be made right into the bearing housing.
Did you send pictures to ARB?
And hopefully they hold up under all circumstances. I guess if nothing is too tight, there shouldn’t be that much force on them.

Haha. By the way, just flipping through the new Wild Horses catalogue. Page 26. Your famous! Congrats sir.

 

[DirtDonk]

Ha ha! Page 26? I’m movin’ up in the world!