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I've got an 05 F350 DRW 4L axle 4.30 limited slip Dana 80. PO stated he had the rear end done at 45k miles because it chewed the teeth off the pinion gear. Truck now has 78k miles, experincing a vibration and rear end is binding up on tight corners. Have only owned the truck 6 weeks, already put on 6 tires, 4 calipers, 2 sets pads, tie rod end, 4 ball joints, 2 coils, 5 u-joints, oil and filter, air filter, fuel filter, and an alignment. Still have to do plugs and manifold studs... Hope this ends soon.
Looking for a used rear end. Any one know what years models 350/450 will fit.
Thanks in advance.
Do you have to use friction modifier on the D-80s?
Yes you have to use 8 oz of friction modifier in 75-90 synthetic gear lube.
"Sounds like the PO abused the truck for all this to need to be fixed."
I don't know about the abuse part but its just to the point where a bunch of stuff was getting ready to fail. The day I bought it, I drove it for half an hour on my test drive everything seemed good and tight. CEL was on was told it was a bad coil. It was. It was living in a City. I brought it to the country on rough, hilly, pot holed roads and started working it. Once stuff started being bounced around a loosened up started showing play.
I cann't seem to get photo's to load through photobuket. If anyone can view this album, have you ever seen diff lube look like this? Its a dark metalic colour. Looks like charcoal paint with a *****load of silver flake in it. No its not water in it!
Drained, cleaned with parts cleaner and refilled with 75-90 Lucus synthetic gear lube and 8 ozs of Motorcraft friction modifier.
Last edited by NovaNewfie; Dec 11, 2013 at 06:59 PM.
Reason: addition...
Teeth look fine. Few small marks on the tone ring, I expect were from the previous repair. Scratches and gouges on the cover where the pinion had let go in it before. Couldn't visually see anything abnormal.
Can you grab some gear marking compund and run a pattern on it? Just for the sake of curiosity? Is there any play in the pinion bearings? Do you have a dial indicator to check the backlash? A few of those numbers could help in coming to a conclusion, the oil definately looks overly metallic ans sludgy to me.
Is it a factory limited slip? I'm sure it will be, as Dana 80 aftermarket is prohibitivly expensive, but just a question. Dana axles take a lot of time and frustation to get perfect in my experience, and there's very few shops that have the people with the talent to do it right anymore. I will give GM one thing, I'd much rather set up a 14 bolt than a Dana any day of the week!
Yes its a factory limited slip. Everything appears tight. No we didn't use a dial indicater. Drained cleaned and refilled... see what happens from here. If I need to tear it apart I'll take it to a shop that specializes in axles. My Uncle has a good friend that has a shop that specializes in custom axles, need be I'll take it to him... He's 400 miles away though. The local salvage yards want $2-3'000 for a good used, hoping it'll cure itself.
I have seen dif fluid look like that but after 100K+ miles not 10K which sounds like what you may have on the rebuild??? The gears will take more abuse then the bearings. What Id recommend is that you pull the cover again after say 5K and see what it looks like. If its still showing heavy metalics Id pull it apart now to inspect. Much cheaper to R&R bearings/races then the bigger hard parts. Then have your buddy who hopefully knows how to set up gears properly have at it. Then you'll have confidence its going to last. Said friend should also be looking for housing and axle shaft deflections that could be out of spec and the root cause of the initial failure.