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This is one of the reasons I would not want to be a shop ownner.
I just work for the goverment pay taxes and listen to wife complain about everything, but with out the wife I would not have my daughter whice makes it all worth it.
I just fixed my diff leak ... changed fluid last year, started leaking just this month. Thankfully, I caught it, but lost about a quart of synthetic at $12/qt.
One thing I did, I read the service manual
I used to let the RTV "skin" and never had a problem with it - shop manual says it needs to be installed within 15 minutes.
So, this time around, I roughed up the mounting surface with sandpaper, same to the cover, and tried it again.
Last time was Black RTV (Permatex Ultra-Black), this time I did it with Red. Shouldn't matter, but hey, I had a brand-new tube
I roughed up the cover and just made sure the diff housing was completely clean and dry. I used the Grey Permatex and applied a light coat to the entire edge of the cover, along with a very thin 1/8 inch bead inside and outside of the bolt holes.
No leaks now and just a slight bit of excess outside the cover.
I was very tempted to find a gasket for mine, and use Hi-Tack on it to glue it to the diff and cover. That'd never leak...
But Ford never made a gasket for it. You might be able to find one aftermarket, or from an earlier year when they DID use gaskets on the 10.25" Sterling.
I am going to regear at some point and do the dual ARB's, I got them in my Toy Taco as well
BTW, you can run a diff temp gauge with MAG HYTEC or some of the other Aluminum aftermarket diff covers, just a thougt
big bobby g
Here's my problem with that. I won't spend $150 on a diff cover. The leak, as EnviroCon put it, was user error ( ), not a bad cover or bad RTV.
The other thing is, once your rear end is up at operating temp, it doesn't fluctuate that much. Having a diff temp gauge is nice and bling ( ), but not really necessary. Well, not $150 worth of necessary.
The extra fluid capacity is nice, but being that the 10.5 holds nearly a gallon of lube as it is ( ), again it's not really necessary to have that extra 2 qts that the Mag Hytec offers.
I know when I purchased my Genuine Gear set master install set It had diff Gasket included in the kit.
Like BFR250SD said do you realy need a high dollor diff cover or you just want the look.
All you have to do to make sure the diff cover wont leak is after removing the cover clean it very well fine a flat surface lay it on top and look for light comming from under the matting surface if so ball pen hammer will fix this, Clean Diff case very well put some good RTV on it let it skin before installing tourqe it proper pattern good to go.
Oh yea stamped steel covers can take a beating and most cases can be bent back to shape, Cast pot metal, Cast Aluminum once bent if it dose not break bending them back in a no no.
Thats one of the good things about the old school cheep to buy white spoke truck wheels bend one while wheeling just find a big rock a hammer buddies head who told you it be ok to drive over those rocks in the first place bent the wheel back to get you home.
I have aluminum wheels now my self so if I do bend one big bucks and hope it holds air then go home and cry I need to spend more money.
Now the shop my truck been in to my rear end at least 10 times now and still makes noise now the ownner is going to to put a complete new read end in the truck, housing axles the whole thing he mad he cant fix this rear end
But beening Ex miliatry we are told never give up dont let go never Quit.
I keeped on bringing the truck back to him saying it's not right and you know it so fix it GET HER DONE.
The shop I been taking my truck to has done at least 5 to 8 more SD Ford after my truck started going back to them and not one other truck has had this problem This is there nightmare truck from Hell.
They are calling it the jet truck the way it whines.
Originally Posted by BFR250SD
Yup! The idiots that did my gears ended up buying a new gear set, install kit and (here's the biggie) a new rear ARB.
They lunched the initial install and the gears ate themselves and all the shavings took out the ARB as well.
That was an expensive learning experience for the shop.
Man, now I have a leak at my front pinion. Seal is toast and there is about 1/16 - 1/8 inch of play in the shaft. I'm gonna be ticked if that bearing is lunched.
Man, now I have a leak at my front pinion. Seal is toast and there is about 1/16 - 1/8 inch of play in the shaft. I'm gonna be ticked if that bearing is lunched.
This is one of the problems I forsee if I let the rear end go with saying ok with the shop that regeared my rear end.
Thats why I been Riding ther rear ends to fix it right.
Sorry to hear that you have to back in to you'r rear but as we been finding out you rear can be a pain in the AS".
If the pinnon Preload is not right thats what happens.
I have a Whirring noise If you spin the rear end and listen to it under the truck you can hear it whine
Originally Posted by BFR250SD
Man, now I have a leak at my front pinion. Seal is toast and there is about 1/16 - 1/8 inch of play in the shaft. I'm gonna be ticked if that bearing is lunched.
Oh Yea Check you'r drive shaft for vibration that can tear bearings up also the place that did my gears they have a F-150 in for that it cracked the diff casing.
The entire pinion shaft will move in / out, up to 1/8" and it will rotate around the circumference about 1/16 to 1/8 inch.
I noticed it too late in the day to bring it over to the shop. It's been almost a year that I've had these gears in, but probably less than 50 miles of that has been 4WD. And that is being EXTREMELY generous.
I gave the guy credit for finally replacing all the crap in my rear end. Granted it took 3 trips of telling them that it's jacked up. But now with this, I'm gonna be a little less.........subtle.