[Brice]

hey i have just taken my jeep to the shop to get my frontend worked on to get the 4x4 working. they said that i have striped my gears in the front. what does this mean and what will i have to buy to fix this. the frontend is a dana 30
thanks!!!

 

[Jerry Bransford]

There are two different kinds of gears in your front axle, the ring & pinion gears and the spider gears. Which gears are they saying are stripped?

 

[Brice]

i dont know he said he was going to take it apart next week to fix it. i think he just took the cover off which one can you tell if it is striped by just taking off the cover or can you see both?

 

[Jerry Bransford]

The big huge round gear is called the ring gear and you can easily see that once the cover is off. The pinion gear that is connected to the front driveshaft via the u-joint that drives the ring gear is much harder to see as it's in the rear of the case, when looking from the front.

The spider gears are inside the gear carrier that the ring gear is bolted to and you can see them but not all that easily.

Spider gears can be easily replaced and it should not be an expensive job. Spider gears are commonly removed by Jeepers and thrown away or thrown in a box when they install a front locker. So if you go to a 4x4 shop, they will probably have old spider gears just laying around somewhere from when they installed lockers in their customer's front axles. Installing them is not difficult either.

If it's the ring & pinion gear set that is bad, that'll cost $500-600 for parts and labor to have them replaced and installed.

 

[Brice]

ok tell me if i am looking at the right parts then. on the internet i see tons of websites selling ring and pinion gears for around 200 what else would i have to buy master instal kit is around 70.00. if this is it the labor would be around 200.00-300.00. is this correct?
thanks for the help on clearing thing up abit

 

[Jerry Bransford]

Yes, the labor will be $250 to $300. It takes a lot of time, patience, and expertise to properly install ring & pinion gears. If not installed perfectly, they will be toast in short order.

I have done all my own work on my TJ, which is extensive, but I will not do my own R&P installations as it's not easy to get it right.

 

[Brice]

ok just making sure that i am looking at the right parts online. now i see about 4 different name brands of parts do you know if the name brand matters if so what are some good brands i dont want to buy something and they break because they were cheep

 

[Jerry Bransford]

Spicer is the best brand in my opinion, and that is the brand of course contained in your Dana-Spicer axles from the factory.

However, I would ONLY ONLY ONLY (!!!) buy the ring & pinion gears from the shop that will be installing them. This is because if you buy them elsewhere and there is any kind of problem afterwards, then the installing shop is under no requirement to help get your axle repaired under warranty. They will just point fingers at the R&P gears and the R&P manufacturer will point their fingers at the installer.

Buy the gears from the installer and he will be obligated to take care of everything should anything go wrong afterwards... and it can and does happen. My last R&P gearset went bad 6 weeks after having them installed but the shop took care of everything under warranty with no questions asked.

And if you bring in a quote for R&P gears that is cheaper than the shop's price, odds are they will match that price to get your business.