Front Dana 30 Ring and Pinion Replacement

[Techstudent]

Greetings!

I recently pulled apart a Dana 30 front axle on a 69 half-cab and found the pinion gear has damaged teeth. The ratio is 3.50 (42 teeth on the ring and 12 on the Pinion) but I'm not finding a lot of 3.50 ratio options. Will a 3.54 ratio (46 and 13) be a direct replacement? Also, if a Dana 30 ring and pinion have the correct ratio what other parameters do I need to check to be sure it will work. Ring diameter? Pinion length? I assume later Dana 30 ring and pinions from a Jeep won't cut it? Looks like a rebuild kit is needed with bearings, seals and shims?

This was an old plow-truck that saw some hard use and I'm mainly trying to get it road worthy. No plans for serious off-roading or rock crawling. Any recommendations on a decent quality ring and pinion that won't put me in the poor house (I'd like to stay away from budget aftermarket parts but don't need extreme performance)?

I've not done this before and am thoroughly grateful for any feedback or guidance!

Thank you!

https://ibb.co/m8Fd3wX] [/url]
https://ibb.co/Bf4ZS3C] [/url]
https://ibb.co/7j3LCN5] [/url]

 

[nvrstuk]

I would highly recommend getting a used ring and pinion from the dozens of EB owners who are throwing them away. Probably free.

Serious here, don't get in a hurry, get on FB, Marketplace and here asking for a used one.

 

[okie4570]

It does need to be a Ford Dana 30. I'd rather have a new one shipped to my door and know that it's good than spend the money and time to chase one down, spend the fuel to go get one, tear into it and pull a 50yo r&p out. For $350 it can all be delivered to your door. It costs almost $200 to fill up our Excursion and fuel is "cheap" here lol.

 

[Techstudent]

Thanks guys! So, going from 3.50 to 3.54 is not a problem?

 

[nvrstuk]

Looks like I got slammed for putting in a R&P that can be gotten fore free, mailed for 25 bucks, and then driven MAYBE 25 miles/yr.

I am a guy that never wants to be broken down when wheeling and will go to great lengths to make sure I'm not that guy!
But putting money in a D30 is like burning it if you ever plan to put it in 4wd.

If you have a D30 you don't want to be wheeling with it more than a few miles a yr to start with.
Is the OP running 27" tall tires because anything larger OD could & will cause any new r&p to look like the one he just pulled out, we've all seen a hundred of them twisted up.


In most guys opinions here that have been shared the last 20+yrs the concensus is not to put any money into a D30 unless it won't be used except for the lightest & most infrequent 4wd applications.

Just clarifying why I posted what I did earlier.

Best of luck to the OP.

 

[Broncobowsher]

3.50 and 3.54 isn't problem. That is how the factory did it. 3.50 in back and 3.54 in front. The tires are not locked onto a geared track. 4WD is only used when there isn't the traction for 2WD. So there will be tire slip, it is expected.

Any of the old school Dana 30 gears will work just fine. About 20 years ago Dana started making a bunch of new axle designs but kept the legacy names. Mainly with the Dana 44 name. Don't know if that followed with the Dana 30 name or not. You don't need a Ford version of the Dana 30 gear set. One for a Jeep or whatever will work just fine.

Yukon Gear or other big axle supply houses will have the install kits. There are shims and preloads involved in setting the gears up correctly. Plenty of videos online about doing it. I am sure there is a good one for the Dana 30, but I don't know it. Hopefully someone else might know it and will post a link. I would only be posting random links from a quick search.

 

[gnpenning]

3:54 will be fine.

Apparently broncobowsher types faster than me

 

[okie4570]

Looks like I got slammed for putting in a R&P that can be gotten fore free, mailed for 25 bucks, and then driven MAYBE 25 miles/yr.

I am a guy that never wants to be broken down when wheeling and will go to great lengths to make sure I'm not that guy!
But putting money in a D30 is like burning it if you ever plan to put it in 4wd.

If you have a D30 you don't want to be wheeling with it more than a few miles a yr to start with.
Is the OP running 27" tall tires because anything larger OD could & will cause any new r&p to look like the one he just pulled out, we've all seen a hundred of them twisted up.


In most guys opinions here that have been shared the last 20+yrs the concensus is not to put any money into a D30 unless it won't be used except for the lightest & most infrequent 4wd applications.

Just clarifying why I posted what I did earlier.

Best of luck to the OP.

Not slammed whatsoever, I just gave a different route and opinion. Most dana 30 axles are sitting out rusting, and he would have to go get it or have someone pull the r&p. Folks generally just don't have a nice, shiny, used Dana 30 r&p sitting on the parts shelf ready to mail out. They swap out their dana 30 for a 44 or a 60 and sit the 30 out to pasture whole. If someone has one sitting on the parts shelf, fantastic. I'm just being realistic, and my time is worth something.

 

[jamesroney]

Looks like I got slammed for putting in a R&P that can be gotten fore free, mailed for 25 bucks, and then driven MAYBE 25 miles/yr.

I am a guy that never wants to be broken down when wheeling and will go to great lengths to make sure I'm not that guy!
But putting money in a D30 is like burning it if you ever plan to put it in 4wd.

If you have a D30 you don't want to be wheeling with it more than a few miles a yr to start with.
Is the OP running 27" tall tires because anything larger OD could & will cause any new r&p to look like the one he just pulled out, we've all seen a hundred of them twisted up.


In most guys opinions here that have been shared the last 20+yrs the concensus is not to put any money into a D30 unless it won't be used except for the lightest & most infrequent 4wd applications.

Just clarifying why I posted what I did earlier.

Best of luck to the OP.

You obviously didn't do your research before you typed.

A dana 30 ring and pinion can easily fit into a USPS Priority Medium Flat Rate box. So it can be shipped 2nd day express to any address in the USA for $17.10.

So you can get American made, OEM Dana Spicer 30 gears delivered to your mail box for under $20. (NOT $25 as you incorrectly posted.)

(...I almost never get to correct you, so believe me that I am taking great joy in typing this post.)

I'm pretty sure that the Low pinion Dana 30 after 1997 uses a crush sleeve, and is 1 inch shorter, and cannot possibly fit in a Bronco 30 housing. I am also pretty sure that the YJ Dana 30 is High Pinion. The Dana 30 in the 72-86 CJ is the only one I know of, and the oddball D30 in the 66-71 Commando. But I don't see too many 3.54 gear sets in those. Seems like 3.73 was more common. But there's bound to be a FSJ (Wagoneer or Cherokee) that runs the long pinion D30. I don't know why I'm thinking that the later Scout 80 ran the D30. I can't remember when they changed from the Dana 25/27.

I throw those things away all the time, and I still have a couple of sets. @nvrstuk I will send these gears to you for free. If you want me to ship them to the OP, that's fine with me too. But I will not send them to just anyone.

Pics coming.

 

[jamesroney]

3.50 and 3.54 isn't problem. That is how the factory did it. 3.50 in back and 3.54 in front. The tires are not locked onto a geared track. 4WD is only used when there isn't the traction for 2WD. So there will be tire slip, it is expected.

Any of the old school Dana 30 gears will work just fine. About 20 years ago Dana started making a bunch of new axle designs but kept the legacy names. Mainly with the Dana 44 name. Don't know if that followed with the Dana 30 name or not. You don't need a Ford version of the Dana 30 gear set. One for a Jeep or whatever will work just fine.

Yukon Gear or other big axle supply houses will have the install kits. There are shims and preloads involved in setting the gears up correctly. Plenty of videos online about doing it. I am sure there is a good one for the Dana 30, but I don't know it. Hopefully someone else might know it and will post a link. I would only be posting random links from a quick search.

There are occasional use cases where the difference between 3.50 and 3.54 might matter, but I 100% agree with you in general.

So for clarification, the factory did run 3.50 out back, and 3.54 up front with the Dana 44 low pinion front axle. The Dana 30 in the Bronco, AND the high Pinion Dana 44 were both 42-12 or 3.50 in a Ford.

The Jeep Dana 30 ran a 46-13 gear set for 3.54. It is a hunting gear set. Some guy named @Broncobowsher wrote a very informative post back in 2009 on the subject of hunting gears. https://classicbroncos.com/forums/t...n-hunting-ring-and-pinion.138166/post-1299165

The reason why I like to use the "correct" gear tooth counts is in those very rare cases where I am forced to mix and match ring and pinions. It doesn't happen much with Dana 30's and 44's and 60's...but I have been forced to use an old pinion with a new ring gear on a Dana 53, and with a Dana 41. I don't like it, but when stuff goes obsolete...it's an unpleasant surprise to find oddball gears. I admit it's only happened twice in my memory, so I wouldn't let that drive your purchasing decision.

In the case with @Techstudent I would absolutely prefer to use factory Dana Spicer used gears. His old gear set has perfect bearings, and is was lapped at the factory at a +.004" pinion depth. The set I have is a +.001." So he can very likely get a decent pattern by just changing one pinion shim. I would wager that he could put this 1970 date coded gear set into his housing with his existing shim pack, and backlash will be pretty close too.

 

[nvrstuk]

Not slammed whatsoever, I just gave a different route and opinion. Most dana 30 axles are sitting out rusting, and he would have to go get it or have someone pull the r&p. Folks generally just don't have a nice, shiny, used Dana 30 r&p sitting on the parts shelf ready to mail out. They swap out their dana 30 for a 44 or a 60 and sit the 30 out to pasture whole. If someone has one sitting on the parts shelf, fantastic. I'm just being realistic, and my time is worth something.

Sounds fair.

Well, I"m quite sure there are more than a few D30 R&P's laying around on shelves that were pulled out of EB's yrs ago that are useable or in a box on a shelf.

There are hundreds of FB Bronco resto-mod guys out there installing D44's. Gotta be a couple D30 gear sets from Broncos sitting around that aren't buried in mud and the R and P are in great shape- heck, James has one!

Just saying, no argument- just trying to let the OP know that he could probably score a set for free (never said he had to go pull them or waste a ton of his time" or spend more than $17.10 for shipping (lol) which might be worth something, just saying why not try?

Very few will ever use a D30 with stock sized tires for anything related to wheeling anymore, seems like the dozen requests a week for "...does anybody have a Bronco D44 frt axle assembly for sale" posts all over the web means there are probably some of those D30's that have working guts and most all builders know that a D30 won't hold up to much if any wheeling even with stock tires.

Just hoping the OP realizes that for the few miles a year he would ever use the D30 he could save several hundred bucks and not have to go crawl in the mud to find a R&P and still be extremely dependable. It's been done for a hundred years

 

[nvrstuk]

You obviously didn't do your research before you typed.

A dana 30 ring and pinion can easily fit into a USPS Priority Medium Flat Rate box. So it can be shipped 2nd day express to any address in the USA for $17.10.

So you can get American made, OEM Dana Spicer 30 gears delivered to your mail box for under $20. (NOT $25 as you incorrectly posted.)

(...I almost never get to correct you, so believe me that I am taking great joy in typing this post.)

I'm pretty sure that the Low pinion Dana 30 after 1997 uses a crush sleeve, and is 1 inch shorter, and cannot possibly fit in a Bronco 30 housing. I am also pretty sure that the YJ Dana 30 is High Pinion. The Dana 30 in the 72-86 CJ is the only one I know of, and the oddball D30 in the 66-71 Commando. But I don't see too many 3.54 gear sets in those. Seems like 3.73 was more common. But there's bound to be a FSJ (Wagoneer or Cherokee) that runs the long pinion D30. I don't know why I'm thinking that the later Scout 80 ran the D30. I can't remember when they changed from the Dana 25/27.

I throw those things away all the time, and I still have a couple will send these gears to you for free. If you want me to ship them to the OP, that's fine with me too. But I will not send them to just anyone.

Pics coming.

James- I'm really hoping this is sarcasm! lol

 

[jamesroney]

James- I'm really hoping this is sarcasm! lol

Yeah...the first part was.

But I do have that extra set of 3.50's for the Dana 30 for free if the OP @Techstudent wants them.

 

[nvrstuk]

That's a great deal for him.

Have a good one!