I had the parts ordered and were supposed to be waiting for me to be repaired today and tried to get one more load out of it. Shouldn't have. Last Wed. I left for the Weatherford' Ok. area, delivered the load Thursday morning and was getting ready to start back and was asked if I wanted to go to Odessa and pick up a "doghouse" and bring it back to the location. I very seldom turn down a job so after a 480 mile deadhead I loaded up the doghouse and started back . Got to the location and could smell oil. Had a hole in the rear cover right at the bottom, the oil trail showed it happened about a mile from the location. Pulled the cover and had a handful of roller bearings. Needless to say I wasn't going anywhere. Called a friend and he said he would come to get me but I would have to drive back because he didn't have a class A license so I found a motel and he got there about 8 PM Sat. We went out the next morning and loaded the truck. After about 10 hours got back and unloaded the truck at the shop that had my parts. It was pulled down today and I had lost a carrier bearing on the driver side. Thought nothing else was wrong but found out the tone wheel was messed up and the speed sensor was cracked also. No other problems, after the other parts get here (tone wheel and speed sensor) I should get back on the road sometime Wed.
Shouldn't have waited as long as I did but it wasn't making metal and wasn't getting hot so I kept going. Moral of this story, if your rear end starts howling, get it checked, especially if your cruse control keeps popping off.

 

How many miles do you have on it now?

 

Like I said in the sig, it's over 366,100 miles. I believe it is like 366,140 something. I don't know what the expected life of these rear ends are, but I was surprised that a bearing let go. Probably all those miles except for maybe 40 or 50,000 miles have been pulling a 40 ft GN.

 

you did good with 366k miles on that rear end.

The older dana 135's in your field of service usually would get at least a bearing job by 250k, and many less than that.

Sometimes you'll get a good diff that goes the life of the truck, and sometimes not.

The key ingredient up here is not AMSOIL, or SHELL, or even Schaeffer or royal purple. It is Petro Canada 75w90 synthetic lube. That stuff is truly golden.

It starts out life bright orange in colour, and funny thing, at the point where you would change diff oils... its still bright orange, and clean. The ONLY time I have seen problems with it, is if bearings are tightened WAY past spec. That is not an oil issue, that's a moron issue.

Congrats on the 366k on that rear, get the rest of the drivetrain checked too. Man, you must have a lead butt to make that many miles.

 

I've been getting good service out of these trucks. I had an 03 that I sold with 345,000 miles on it and a 95 that was sold with 416,000 miles on it. My butt has been numb for a long time.