So heading to work the other day, I grenaded the pinion in my rear diff. I was lucky enough to coast into a transmission shop that said they would have a look at it, and give me an estimate on fixing it. They said it would be $1000-$1200 to do everything accept axels and wheel bearings. I thought that seemed really high and said I would get back to them. I started looking for a whole diff and can't find a Dana 70 dually with my same outers. I started looking at replacement parts, and found that they're a little more expensive for name brand stuff than I thought they would be, unless I'm looking in the wrong places. I'm also wondering how hard it is to do myself, because I've never done one. I've had a few guys tell me that it's easy, but they're hacks. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and if I can't do a professional type job, I'd rather not try. With that being said, I'm pretty good at turning wrenches, and I've never had a shop work on my rigs, ever. So before I make any decisions, I'd love to hear your guy's thoughts/advice/experiences. Appreciated as always, thanks.

 

Get the FSM (Factory Service Manual), the hard-parts, and enjoy doing it yourself.

Informative links in this post should prove helpful: https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...75&postcount=1

 

$1,000 to $1,200 is a deal, but if you pay someone you want that person to do it all the time, there's some "art" involved in setting up the gears. Chances are a carrier bearing has spun, common problem with Danas, and if that has happened the carrier might be salvageable with some machining. If you have a Powr-Lok the replacement cost is close to $900. Parts prices have gone thru the roof lately. Dana/Spicer ring and pinion around $350. Doing it yourself takes some special tools and set-up bearings are nice, which you can make yourself with the old ones if they are ok. I once swapped everything from a dana 44 rear into a new housing, but I didn't mess with shimming bearings, kept everything as it was. It didn't sing or whine but I didn't put a lot of miles on it either. Read everything you can on how to do it and figure what tools you will need to buy and decide if it's worth it.

 

I agree anyone can throw parts in a housing but will it be quiet and last is another story. If they standby their work it's not a bad deal. Dana 70 are not the easiest diff to rebuild since every adjustment is done with shims. Notorious for carrier bearing race to spin in housing with these also. I just did one which had a spun bearing race and had to pull housing from truck to send to machine shop for repair. No housings available nation wide. Lucky that customer had a service contract.