Finally did some wrenchin w/ the hood CLOSED

[Mrturner1]

Well I've been in this fight with my engine which is my first one, I did a heads/cam/intake/carb swap on an old used short block that just refuses to die. I put some halfway decent heads on, a cam that's WAY WAY to big and choppy (like 10 second car choppy lol 106 LSA) and a big ole Holley 750 DP to top it off. It's been a struggle to get it driveable but I think I'm there finally, time will tell.

Anyway I have had this awesome Moser rear diff cover with bearing supports that's been collecting dust on the shelf because my engine needed all my attention (or maybe it didn't and that's they key) so this morning I decided to open the diff up and clean, check, and install the new cover. It's a 12 bolt with a mini spool and 3.73's, which should last me and be sufficient for anything I decide to do with the truck. It's going to the track someday but it needs suspension and brakes first

Anyway, easy install, took 45 minutes just putting along and it looks really nice. Not a bad 150 bucks IMO

[Mrturner1]

Here's the finished product. I'm taking the helper springs off later today

[davepl]

Whew! I can smell that fluid from here!

[Mrturner1]

Originally Posted by davepl

Whew! I can smell that fluid from here!

No kiddin it's pretty foul. I read that a 12 bolt needs 2 liters of gear oil so I put in 1 for now until somebody can chime in on an exact amount.

[cleszkie]

You add gear oil until it starts to leak out the filler hole. That is how you do it. Don't starve your pinion bearings by under-filling it.

BTW - you drive on the street with a spool? That's hard on the tires, and generally hard on the axles during turns, as I'm sure you've heard your tires complaining (chirping). Spools are great for off-road use or straight line racing, but not so much for dd use.

[Mrturner1]

Originally Posted by cleszkie

You add gear oil until it starts to leak out the filler hole. That is how you do it. Don't starve your pinion bearings by under-filling it.

BTW - you drive on the street with a spool? That's hard on the tires, and generally hard on the axles during turns, as I'm sure you've heard your tires complaining (chirping). Spools are great for off-road use or straight line racing, but not so much for dd use.

Fill to fill plug overflow even on aftermarket diff cover?

lol it's far from a daily driver, I'm lucky if a get a short drive to the market in town once a week. But it sure is a fun ride it'll see track time once I get the safety stuff all done and I can stop this flying brick. It does chirp on U-turns and in parking lots, it's kindof entertaining. Anybody who knows why it's chirping and is walking by gives a smile and thumbs up.

[cleszkie]

Originally Posted by Mrturner1

Fill to fill plug overflow even on aftermarket diff cover?

Yes. I can't imagine that the Moser cover has the fill hole much higher than the stock cover. But if it does, in order to avoid the built-in bearing supports, I would still fill it to this level because the bearing supports are taking away from the internal oil volume, and raising the oil level in the diff a little will make up for that. The more oil you have, the cooler the diff will run. You just don't want to fill the diff to the gills, or else you run the risk of forcing heated oil out the breather tube.