2001 2500, never towed or worked hard, 43k miles.<br>I am going to tow a 5er and read the post on changing to syn. in the dif. when I crawled under today I found a wheel seal leaking. I have a Dana 80, is there a problem with this dif. or is this leak a fluke?<br>jerryb

 

If it's just a little wet around the pinion seal I would not worry about it. Watch your fluid level and make sure your not loosing lots. If it starts blowing back all over the axle I would change it. I'ts not a uncommon problem, usually the leaks are not bad enough to cause any problems if you check it every oil change. A shop could change it in about 20 minutes.

 

There is rubber hose that comes from the rearend housing with a little plastic cap which is a vent it may be plugged. If this is the case when the rearend warms up it builds up pressure if it cant vent it will push oil out and the wheel or pinion seal will leak. If it's a wheel seal change right away as the oil will contaminate the brake linings/disc pads and will also have to be changed. Also the wheel bearing may need adjusting which can be adjusted when changing the oil seal.PK

 

I have 160,000 on mine and at 126,000 a wheel seal went to leaking. I was concerned due to the heavy use that I have for it. Pulling it down I found that the bearings were fine, repacked them, new seal, new nut, no problems. If you do it yourself you will need a new seal and a new adjusting nut. If you should need bearings get them from a parts house not the *******. The ******* really likes them, lot of money. Also look at how to set the adjustment before you take it down. You torque it and back off a certain amount. Little different than other trucks that I have worked on. And do not forget to pack the bearings with grease or you will lose the bearings before the rear axle lube gets to them.

 

Haulin in Dixie one has to be extremely careful of packing live axle bearings with grease, some greases are NOT hypoid compatable. To many people do not know how to re-lube drive axles properly. To lube proper on re-instalation install hub part way and fill oil galley in hub with oil, if you still are in doubt use Lubriplate on roller bearing surfaces but do not pack like a grease bearing. Once hub assembly is installed and bearing adjusted spin wheel by hand and you can add oil to hub assembly by squeezing oil from a 1 quart bottle into side of bearing at top while turning. If the repair is made with only one side jacked up oil will naturally run to the low side feeding oil to inside bearing from hub gallery. The Dodge uses a Nyloc nut which I don't recommend re-use they have been known to back off, and make sure there is a new nut lock with nut (tiny wedge). Install drive axle and cross torque bolts like a wheel, drive truck unloaded few miles and re-check oil level in diff-fill to edge of hole as some oil will run across to the outer hubs. PK

 

PK I guess you know what you are talking about and I am never too old to learn, but I have done hundreds if not thousands of them since my teens, probably 45 years or so, and never have had a bearing that I put together come apart. I also have never seen anyone do it differently. I pack them with a non synthetic high fiber bearing grease and put them together. Run them a few miles and top off the lube. That includes my Dodge with the 2500 bearings pulling 30,000. Over the years I have changed three sets of axle housings where some bright eyed mechanic did not pack them. For me I would never ever set one up without packing them well. Ruins your day when a wheel comes off on the freeway and the rest are smoking. Works for me...

 

I've done Eatons &amp; Rockwells but not any little ones, we used to pack the bearings but don't anymore, don't know why.<br>Where can I find info on the Dana? Tourqe specs Etc? I will probably change out the seal Monday, I judge by what you guys think I should only do the leaking seal, no reason to check out the other side.

 

Didn't want to upset a bunch of old practices that worked but what happened was grease packing was a short cut garrantee and it does work. Unfortunately as lubes became more intricate the compounds changed and as I said not compatable with certain oil. Hypoid gear oil as we have seen discussed many times are special oils with special additves for shear qualities or in simple terms an additve that protects the gear facings that continously contact each other. Eaton sent us a TSB that basically says contamination of the hypoid oil reduces the oils ability to protect the gear surfaces, the oil companies will tell you directly that certain greases and oils are not compatable because each one is designed for a specific purpose. Eaton then prescribes a procedure for wheel hub installation to prevent low oil failure which is what I had posted, they also show you in the warranty where if there is a failure it will be investigated before approved. We have discussed oil analyses on other posts here but we always talk about engine oil in reality oil analyses is done on oils from all compononents to show contamination and identify all compounds within in it at time of failure. That is why I had suggested a &quot;light&quot; coating of Lubriplate it mixes readily with most oils and has no fancy additives. I had worked for a company in Canada called Turbo which we had our own truck fleet and used our own products (Redram Oils and lubes). We also had access to the refinery lab and there results and had witnessed product failures with experimental greases and lubes in improper applications. I also had worked for the county for 3 seasons where an old style mechanic had used these methods and I agree failures were small but we encountered problems. We had a set of Eaton rearends that failed on a gravel truck due to lubricant contamination (grease packing) there was also some pumps on farm style tractors that prematurely failed using engine oil in place of hydraulic. Needless to say all of this was a recommendation of the shop mechanic, down side was warranty denied on any piece of equipment &quot;contaminated&quot; as per the maintenance records, huge cost to the tax payer that was unnecessary. Recently at another job at a mine we saw a mechanic trash 6 Allison auto's by improper filter and oil re-installation, good mechanic he just had not updated his info to work on 2400 series Allisons. No warranty due to improper procedure, company we worked for was also the one pushing for oil change when unnnecessary(in house maintenance schedule). Hey guys this is only ment as a heads up, you own it and are welcome to operate as you see fit but lots of people read these things who do not have the ability to repair physically or financially and may need to be warranty compliant. PK

 

jb wheel seal job should not take more than an hour in the &quot;driveway&quot; but take your time critical part is DONT scar the bearings or races (look for wear scars on races) use a brass drift to knock out rear bearing and seal. If you don't have a seal set tool one can be made by using an old rear bearing race and grind down the outside surface enough to fit into back of the hub without sticking. Dont forget to put back bearing back in before the seal with hub on floor but not directly on concrete, get level as possible set the seal on the hub as square as possible. I use a piece of 2x4 and lay it flat on the seal hit as close as possible to the center witha 3lb hand sledge, you will have to check squareness of seal each hit and drive in square. It will come to apoint where the seal will seat below hub rim and this is where old race is used to seat the rest of the way(bottom of machined seal groove), some will seat with a punch which I dont like as it can warp the seal surface. For the DC procedure give Luke S a pm and perhaps he will fax you the procedure out of the book. Check axle stub for excessive grooving where seal rides-clean thoroughly/replace brake shoes if oil soaked(they will deteriorate) then when ready put hub on carefully as straight as possible so as not to damage new seal. When hub slides on all the way fill oil galley with oil and coat outer bearing in hypoid insert onto stub with washer and nut (make note of number of threads showing when dis-assembling) nut should basically be at same place. Use socket on nut with long bar load up bearings to where hub wont quite turn by hand-backoff 1/8 and it should turn freely with no up or down movement in hub, tap lock in place for nut. If you did jack up only one side squirt hypoid into top of bearing above nut while hand turning hub until steady stream of oil coming from bottom of hub hopefully you have left drain bucket under hub. When you pulled axle out make sure to protect splines, to re-install push in gently until resistance 2-4&quot; may have to turn axle slightly so splines line up with diff. Once in turn hub to line up bolt holes, I usually lightly silicone gasket to axle so as not to forget it and it stays lined up with holes for bolts. If brakes were removed or backed off remember to step on brakes to reset (discs) or back up several times to auto adjust shoes before test driving on street. Recheck diff oil level after test drive and fill to hole. PK

 

Thanks pk, should be no problem.

 

Did you put the Dana 80 in, I thought all 2500s came with the 70s.And the 3500 drw is an 80. Just didn`t want you to order the wrong seals.<br> Danny

 

Both my 2500 and 3500 have a dana 80. The 2500 has the camper package, this may be why. Both of them have a &quot;80&quot; cast on the front, driver's side of the pumpkin, almost on the top.

 

All second gen manual trans comes with the 80

 

eric 76 Check the label inside your glove box for the axle size. Should state clearly what size Dana you have on front and rear. Mine is a 2500 w/camper package and plow package and came w/ Dana 70 in rear and Dana 60 in front. 3500 series trucks come with Dana 80's in rear,and i don't think a 80 was offered as an option on 2500's. As for your axle seal, the advice about not packing the bearings with grease is right on. Lube co's say they are incompatible,and i have seen cross contaminated bearings where the grease either turns hard or liquifies causing bearing failures. Prelube your bearings with the type gear lubricant that you are putting in the diff. TGCTD

 

Sticker says dana M60 front, dana M80 rear