Up-Grading my Dana 20 Rear output shaft with a custom....

[fifesjeep]

Alright folks... I decided to make my own HD Rear output shaft and housing for my Dana 20... Mainly because.. I'm too cheap to go out and spend $450-$500 for the kit... Plus I can make mine BIGGER and BETTER..
Anyway, after pulling the rear housing and shaft from the Dana 20 I had to decide what material that I would use... I decided to look in my "little" Junk pile of axle parts etc.. And I just happened to find my old pinion from the 14 Bolt which had the 3:21 gears (Hence the reason it was in the Junk Pile, People told me to sell that on Ebay because it's a rare catch.. What-ever I guess). Anyway, after a few moments of measuring I realized that this pinion had plenty of material in all directions.... So, my first step was see how hard this pinion was... I did the rockwell test and i tested @ 62 on the "C" scale... WOW! That $h!t is hard as He!! I thought to myself... I then had to look up the material... 8620 A low alloy steel... (Great for Case hardening).. along with 4340... The only problem that I had was the hardness... Mainly the case.. After more research I founf that the case was approximately .070" thick... So, with that bit of knowledge I decided to Full-Anneal it.. (To make it soft)... After I Full-Annealed it I chucked it up and started turning it in a lathe... The first few passes were kind of touchy but the cutter held up to the calling... surprisingly with the interupted cuts and hardness of the outer shell... Once I cut past the hard stuff it was like cutting butter... I cut it down to the size specified from what my math/formulas told me to cut it to... After that, it was time to set-up the Horizontal mill for cutting splines... After digging through cutters I finally found a cutter that matched... Now that I got the cutter I did even more math/formulas to figure the offset and table height increase... I did some practice pieces first and they came out good so I figured.. lets rock-out with the cock-out... After cutting the modified pinion I decided to make it longer.. So grabbed a piece of material and decided to start from scratch... Here are some pics of this little "project"

Stock Shaft

Modified Pinion

Both side by side

Bottom of stock shaft

Bottom of modified pinion

Picture or drawing of Custom housing

Custom Housing

Side view of housing

More of a top view of housing

Top view with Cup or outer Race installed

View with bearing sitting in-place

A side view with oiling holes etc

The other side with Cup in-place

Another shot of oiling hole (For external lines or plug)

These next two pics are of the test pieces.. using different methods


This is a pic of the complete shaft

Shaft inside of gear

Shaft inside gear with Yoke sitting in-place

Bottom view of shaft and gear

View of Gear


Hopefully you guys will enjoy this thread... I'll post more pics once I have accomplished a little more... I still have to drill and bore the backside of the gear and also I need to heat treat and coat it... Up-dates to come! Feel free to leave comments, thoughts, ideas etc..

[KEV]

Now what do you need to build one for a Bronco Dana 20? Or to supply a parts list including millends and cutters as to make my own.

[fifesjeep]

Is the output shaft the same as a Late 70's Jeep?... I have the measurements at work in my box... But those are for the Jeep dimensions... Not sure if the Bronco etc are the same or not... Honestly the hardest part was finding the right cutter... I used a Bevel Cutter with a DP 7, #7 for the larger splines etc... then I had to offset and raise the table etc... The machining was cake... I honestly hate cutting gears, splines etc... That crap takes forever... I can make a shaft and cut the splines in a solid day of constant machining... Now, if I have CNC rip me out a shaft that will cut about 2 1/2 hours off of total time... Heat-treatment will be a tester as-well... If you decide to make one... use either 4340 or 8620 for the shaft.. Or you can use the pinion out of a 14 bolt... about $10-$15 at the Junk yard.... (It sure saves some money when compared to buying bar stock)... Especially low Allow steel. Also, used a HD Carbide cutter.. Something of size that can handle hard material...

[fuzz401]

looks like you have the early output shaft the later 20 tc had the fine spline shafts

[fifesjeep]

Fuzz, From what I just read you could be right... 10 spline vs 26 spline... On Novak-Adapters the gear part numbers suggest that this T-Case is from 66-79... and from one of these vehicles, Late Style Kaiser, J Series Pick-up & Wagons, Jeepster.

[fifesjeep]

Alright here are a few posser shots of my Dana 20 "Up-Grade"... I didn't put the seal in all the way... (Once she is in she'll be flush with the top).... Like I said Posser shots...




Feel free to ask away, give thoughts or Ideas.... I'm already looking to up grade my up-grade... hahaha

[Patf10]

what a bout a provision for the speedo gear. that would be a nice thing to have if thats important to you

cool project though

[fifesjeep]

what a bout a provision for the speedo gear. that would be a nice thing to have if thats important to you

cool project though

hahaha that's a good one... =D> .... Just teasing... No speedo gear man... that's what my tach is for... In all honesty and IMO there is No sense of having a speedometer if 30 maybe 40 mph is the max speeds I'll see.. She'll be used for mainly off-roading.. and some emergancy usage. I normally don't look at my speeds while driving... I listen to the motor and watch the tach... along with oil pressure, water temp etc...

[Mudrat]

DAMN DUDE!!! Ya got skilzzzzz

[ironman_gq]

how much for one