thibodet

Own a 1996 2500 with the Cummings. The blogs report the ATX on this model typically fails at 100k. I just replaced the ATX at just 89K original miles. I was wondering realistically what is the typical life of the rear differential? This is a two wheel drive model. Preventive Maintenance on my girl is strictly adhered to. Information I have discovered reports typical differential life is about 150K. 80% of mileage is towing 5k lbs. Will eminent failure provide some type of warning that the failure is coming or will the failure just happen with no warning? Your thoughts?

oliver foster

I rarely see these axles fail, under normal driving conditions if the fluid is kept up to par.
That is coming from a guy who has owned many of these trucks with 200,000-400,000 miles on them.

Average diff. life of 150K sounds like total BS to me. I would guess it is more like 400,000.

Welcome to DTR

BarryG

On my 01 I sold it with 350k on it diffs still ok. Brother in law owns it now and still no problems with the diffs. I know not a 96 but I think same axles. I did run quality synthetic lube in them.
Since I have not had a dana axle grenade cant say for sure but on two previous vehicles that were high mileage the diff let me know before it grenaded. Though I suppose that would totally depend on what was happening ie just worn out or a snapped ring or pinion.

thibodet

Appreciated the feedback. Sounds like my truck will carry me into the grave. I don't put but a couple thousands miles on it per year. Plan on traveling across country when I retire. Will rack up the miles then.

torquefan

The Dana 70 axle that comes with the auto trucks is fairly decent. One failure that I have seen several times is that, if the carrier bearings are allowed to wear enough that preload is lost, the races can spin in the housing and destroy it. I really think it might be worth throwing new carrier bearings in as preventive maintenance if a truck is used hard.

Never seen a problem with the Dana 80 that came with the manual trucks.

patdaly

Like everyone else says, the Dana 70 in the auto and the Dana 80 in the Manual trucks are pretty doggone bulletproof. I think the issue arises is when people are running way over the rated weights, which is very easy to do with these things, not to mention running more HP/Torque that they are rated for as it is stupid easy to double or more the Hp.

I just looked over the rear in my Greenie at 220K and it is like new......... but she is stock and I don't abuse the towing rating very much.

joem

this is a 8 year old video of my truck just before my friend sold it to me for $2500 bucks due to him breaking the pinion teeth off his Dana 70, lucky for me I found a sweet 2002 disk brake dana 70 on craigs list for $100 bucks from a guy who rolled his truck and was parting it out. I also know of 2 other people who have broken dana 70's with stock HP

pipewrench

my '01 had 180000 miles on it when I traded it, at least 70% were towing a heavy 5er and no problems with the read dif. I did have the Mag Hytec, ran the oil level high and changed it on schedule. A friend had nearly 300000 on his with no problem.