Differential Housing Spreader Tool for Dana 60 Axle

This is a bench-style housing spreader for Dana axles, sized for the Dana 60 and the rest of the Dana family: 27, 30, 44, 45, 50, 53, 60, 61, 70, 70U, 70HD and 80. It bolts to the two cover-bolt holes on either side of the carrier bore, and a center screw pushes the frame apart so the housing opens a few thousandths. That is all the room you need to walk a carrier with side bearings already pressed on in or out of the housing without hammering the case or the bearing cups.

Setting up a ring and pinion is where this earns its keep. On a Dana 60 you install the carrier with the shims and side bearings on it, spread the housing, drop the assembly in, release the spread, and the shims hold the preload you calculated instead of the preload you happened to beat in. Pulling a carrier back out to change backlash shims goes the same way -- spread, lift the carrier, add or subtract shim thickness, drop it back in. A dial indicator on the spreader arm keeps you honest: 0.015 in of spread is a working figure on a Dana 60 and going past about 0.020 in starts yielding the housing.

The frame is 18.11 in long by 14.8 in wide, powder-coated steel, and it ships at about 41 lb, so it is a rack tool rather than something you carry in a box. The trade the alternative gets you: without a spreader you are driving the carrier in with a dead blow and reading a preload number you cannot trust, which is how side bearings end up spun in the cups. Note that on some full-float Dana 60 front housings the arms sit close to the cover flange -- check the fit against your housing before you load the screw.