Pertneer's Blog

While the carrier was on its way I decided that I would try to make a new Diff Cover for he Dana 44 axle. I had searched previously to find a DXF file with good enough dimensions to cut on the CNC Plasma. Since the cover was off and I had time I just created the file myself. I placed the stock cover on my weld table and used a scribe to outline the existing cover and the placement of the holes. Once I was comfortable with the markings, I proceeded to measure and draw it in CAD. The outline was fairly simple, but the holes tend to not be so easy. First off the tolerance of the stock cover was all over the place. So I first cut this into a thin sheet of steel to save on the cost of checking the dimension I took. After an initial trial, I discover that two hole were just far enough off that you could start all the others and just slightly off to start the bolt. On the thicker material I decided the easiest way to fix this was to open the hole size up to .375 from .34 and all the bolt fit with out an issue. (more…)

Decided it was time to do a gear swap on my Jeep. there is only so much you can do with 33″ tires and 3.53 gears. most of the time I have the clutch pushed in because even in low range i was moving to fast for the obstacle in my path. So i headed on over to Randy’s Ring and Pinion and pushed the needed 4.11 gears for my axles. The rear is a ford 9″ from a 1979 Ford Bronco so I went with USA Standard Ring & Pinion gear set ZG F9-411. Since i still recently installed new bearing during the spool install, I still have the appropriate shims needed to set up the gears. The install went without a hitch. Gear pattern looked good and everything went together easily. (more…)