looking at Mag HiTech front and rear diff covers. How hard are they to install? Looks fairly simple. Do they come with instructions? How much of the front steering linkage must come off to replace the front cover? What kind of limited slip additive did you add to the rear end? Thanks for any help.

 

Rear is a piece of cake, my Dana 80 is not L/S, so I can't help you there, although Redline and several other people make good friction modifiers. Torque the bolts 25-30 ft lbs, no RTV required!!! Front is easy, I just did mine with the stock cover, Mag-Hytec says there are some clearance problems with the front cover/track bar on some trucks, can't remember which ones. I didn't see the point on the front cover, I hardly ever use 4WD, mostly towing. The dipstick is cool!!

Tom

 

Adding the covers is a relatively easy task. If I recall the rear was a simple swap. Just make sure and get all the old gasket material off. I used a wire brush on a drill and made short work of it. Some of the rears have a stamp in the gasket surface area and if I recall the directions just say to smear some rtv over the stamped portion to fill in the stamp and then bolt it up.

The front, at least on mine, I had to drop a piece of linkage (cant remember which one but the directions were clear as to which piece). All it took to drop it was remove a nut and knock it loose and it fell right down. That allows the clearance needed to install the new cover. Reinstall was easy just lift it back up and reinstall the nut. The cover itself just remove the gasket material and bolt the new one up.

 

It's so easy you can do it lying on your back

 

I've only done the rear and it was a piece of cake, I did not have to remove the swaybar, but took the spare out to have more room to work. I have a 285/75-R16 spare tire. With your 315's I "think" there should still be room without too much hassle.



~Rob

 

Front tends to be iffy on 2002's.

Check with user Commatoze, he had a bunch of problems with his.

Especially the lack of a breather tube on the replacement cover.


phox

 

for the additive, just go to your local autoparts store and pick up something off of the shelf. as far as changing the covers out, if you turn a wrench, you can change out the cover.

 

I just put on the rear diff and trans pan. Front is going on in a couple of days, You will need s (7 oz) of friction modifier for the rear diff. if it it is a Dana 70, 2WD. For 4WD it takes 8 oz. If you have a Dana 80 you need 7 oz for 2WD and 10 oz for 4WD. The mag-hytec has more fliud capacity so another oz or two may not hurt. I put in 8 0z in my Dana 70 with 4WD, and it doesn't chatter. The front cover that i bought for my '02 has the vent tube on the cover. You have to buy the mag-hytec cover with the vented dipstick for this application. It is also "notched out" to clear drag link. I'll let you know how it clears when i get it on.

 

Buz, your signature says you have an 02. I have a caution for you. Check your stock front cover. If you can see a vent hose coming out of the top of the cover, I recommend against installing a new cover. The problem, unless Gerry fixed it, is insufficient baffling inside the cover. During operation the oil gets drawn up the vent hose and pukes out the end. It makes an unbelievable mess. I have a brand new front cover that I can't use because of this situation. If your front axle has the vent on the axle tube, then you're OK. The vent relocation from the axle tube to the cover was a mid-year revision that happened when they went to a full time rotating driveshaft. My truck was built in early February 2002 and contains the new axle and the vent on the cover.

 

Unless I'm mis reading what you said...I'm confused.
I have an early 02 (made in Oct 01)...not an 02.5....and my vent is on the axle? No problem with front Mag Hy-Tec Cover at all.

RJ

 

Yes, I see where you might be confused. What I meant was the mid-year revision moved the vent to the cover. I'll clarify that in my original post.

 

Finished install tonight on front cover. I found it necessary to drop the left side tie rod and remove left front wheel to get cover to clear ring gear during install. I put a smear of axle Rtv on the silicone seal and torqued it to 25 # as suggested. I had just enough clearance to put a small funnel in the top to fill ,and it took about 4.5 Qts of 75-140 syn gear oil. It was much easier to fill with the L/F tire off,as i was on the ground, but it won't be necessary to remove the wheel to check and fill it again. As far as the venting goes, the cover is vented through the dipstick and is baffled around the dipstick. My production date is 3/21/02 and had the vent on the cover like commatoze has. To my knowledge this cover was released very recently,and it isn't orderable online yet. I had to order this one by phone instead of buying on-line. I will post some pictures tomorrow. Tony

 

Photos are now in gallery. Drove today about 50 miles without any leaks or puking out the vent. TG