Towing vehicle rear end!

[bassarama]

Coming back from a fishing trip last Sat. my Dodge pickup truck started making “read end noises” *;D ;D

No no, not those noises from the rear end you're thinking *:o :o *

Well… let me explain, the rear end of my truck has been troublesome for a while now, after a big bill repair it never came back the same, so the mechanic repaired one thing and 700 bucks later I inherited a high pitch noise for free, literally (got my dough back) . For two years now I’ve been dealing with this noise, with the rear end’s life expectancy very low I’ve been maintaining it a bit better changing the oil every 4th motor oil change, +- 15k miles.

So, last Sat. I though I lost the darn thing for good, while pulling the V up the driveway it grinded so bad that I didn’t run it since. I had a couple of days to browse around and actually found a 56k mile used rear end for 850 bucks.

Curiosity got the best of me, and I decided to open her up before picking up the newer axle and to take some graphic mechanical pictures, after all I expected gear pieces all over in the housing.

The good news is this, no additional damage.WTF! :-/ :-/



Notice how few particles were on the bottom?



Yeeeehaaaa :o *I just save 850 bucks minus the oil change and a Sam Addams Light to celebrate! ;D ;D

A couple of quarts of synthetic 75w-90 and 7 oz of limited slip oil, she’s ready to go again.

I talked to a pro mechanic who happens to be a friend and he advised me to change the rear end oil and additive more often, especially when towing long distances ( like me) whether the axle is noisy or not.

From now on, I’ll do mine every 10k miles, it takes me approx. an hour including a Sam Addams break ;)

To me it's cheap insurance.

Joe