I was driving and doing errands today and the seal on the rear cover blew. I felt a shimmy in the back and pulled over found the diff leaking fluid. It's the stock 3.55. The seal was replaced at 22,000 when the truck was reconditioned after being a rental. Now at 29,126 miles it blew. I looked at the mannual and it said the rear should be replaced every 15k. So does this mean I've got a bad rear end becuase its causing so much heat that the seal breaks down prematurely? I inspected the ring and pinion, I did not see any wear marks or rubbing, no excessive play in the linkage however there was moderate sluge at the bottom of the housing. I replaced the seal added a fresh coat of high gloss paint lime green color to the cover and it looks awsome. I'll post a pic of it when the sun comes up . I added synthetic 75W/140 to the diff, I'm gonna watch it to see if the new fluid will make a difference.

 

Strange!

 

the rams are having the same problem. something is breaking down in the gasket or addhesive and causing them too blow. only problem on the rams is it is tearing up the spider gears and everything else.. seeing how it was a rental. the probably beat the snot out of it. might just want to bring it in for service. 100.00 now or 2000.00 later.

 

I was a technician at Manassas Dodge and to tell you the truth on the Dodge trucks they use an adhesive that is not the strong when it gets hot and breaks down really quickly! i'm at about 11,000 and my rear differential seal is wet and sometime with in the next month or so i'm goin to have to replace it but i'm gonna see about getting a metal gasket instead installed to seal it down for good basically and never have to worry about it again...then still use some adhesive just where the screws go in to make sure those get sealed off!

 

we use a ford oil sealant made for the 7.3 diesels at our shop. we've had problems with regular rtv and synthetic gear oil. the ford sealant can be bought at ford dealer and comes in a caulking gun type container. if you use it, it take a while to set up. let it sit for a hour before adding fluid. trust me, it works great.....never had one leak.