I pulled the rear cover off my 04 2500, bead blasted it and painted it tonight. Once it was cleaned up, I noticed the "fill line" is pretty far below the fill plug. PO had it over full, as it was spilling out of the fill plug when I checked it last. I couldn't find the capacity in the owners manual, but am reading online that its 4.75 pints (2.375 quarts).

While I was under there, I noticed that not only is one shock damaged - but it looks like they've never been replaced... guess I'll order some new shocks for the rear....

I had ordered a new lubelocker gasket, but found there was already a really nice reusable gasket already in place. I read online that they came with reusable gaskets, so it could be original... seemed to seal up fine again, so put the lubelocker on the shelf.

And I don't know how I missed it before, but stuffed in the side pocket of the docs was the original window sticker...

 

Refilled and finished the job last night. Been using Krylon paint/primer in one can for some small projects, figured I'd see how it'd hold up under the truck. Its pretty fast dry, I removed it, bead blasted it, painted it, and installed it on the truck the same evening. Intent was just to stop the surface rust, I'll be coating the underside of this truck with Fluid Film anyway, so it won't matter much if the paint doesn't hold up too well.

I grabbed a shot of the fluid level, now that its nice and clean and painted- easy to read. And toss in the whole cover pic so you can see the reference. Never saw one that was that much lower than the fill port. I'm thinking that finger print isn't in the paint, just noticed it !

 

Looking good. Never seen that type of fill line before? i think I would still fill to the bottom of the fill port ?

 

The guys that design the axles are pretty sharp, so, if that's where they want fluid level, I would follow their advice. Over filling might cause issues at the axle seals......

 

Thinking aeration might occur if its too full. It is hard to tell if you have it up to the fill line, given where it is. TSB said about 1" below the bottom of the fill port, which is about where that fill line is....

http://dodgeram.info/tsb/2004/03-001-04A.htm

 

Interesting. Learned something today!

 

After searching for a new gasket for the front 9.5, I think the felpro is what I found on the 10.5. Or the felpro is a copy of the original. I think I prefer it over the lubelocker. More expensive than the lubelocker though.