[xcessive_ss]

I guess all my oil leaked out of my rear end today and it locked up cruising at around 30. After skidding to a stop ..... almost hit a sign on the side of the freeway, I walked to the auto store and bought some oil. I put the oil in and when I fired up the car it moved again.

I got it home (i was only a few blocks away) and pulled the cover and nothing seems to be broken. Everything is spinning freely. I'm a little worried about driving it but I can't seem to find anything wrong.

Can any of you suggest any steps I should take to find anything wrong that I may be missing???

btw, it's an open 2.73 12 bolt

 

[rcrchsr16]

Why is it so low on gear oil? I never heard of any rear losing all of it's oil in one day. Generally when one locks up its from excessive heat and or a tooth breaking off and lodging in the gear set. Did you find a rough edge on the outer part of the ring gear? Is it really noisy? Was there any metal in the oil when you pulled the cover- it looks kinda like metallic silver paint? If you don't find any of these you're really lucky!! I'd put a GL5 rated gear oil in there, and since it's not a posi unit, you don't have to use the additive for it.

 

[xcessive_ss]

before i pulled the cover i noticed a leak in the cover gasket. I also had some loose bolts where the leak was coming from. I don't see any broken teeth or any metal in the oil.

 

[Bowtie70ss]

Your rear pinion bearing at the very least is hammered. If I were you spend $150 on a bearing kit at the parts store...comes with everything you need. I'm not wishing you bad luck but there is little chance that you did not damage something.

 

[BillyGman]

Your rear pinion bearing at the very least is hammered. If I were you spend $150 on a bearing kit at the parts store...comes with everything you need. I'm not wishing you bad luck but there is little chance that you did not damage something.

I agree. I sure wouldn't trust it at highway speeds. It had to have overheated. Ring & pinion gears are Hypoid type gears. Meaning that they're curved, and while in use, the teeth slide against each other. This is why they get real hot when there isn't any gear lube. And that heat undoubtedly transfered to the pinion bearings, and caused them to overheat all the more.

You may think that I'm over thinking this, but if the rear locked-up, then I wouldn't even feel safe driving the car w/out replacing both the pinion bearings and the ring & pinion gears. There's a significant amount of labor just replacing the large and small pinion bearings anyway. So while you're in there, why not just go a little further, and replace the ring & pinion gears too? You'll have the pinion gear out of the rear just to replace the pinion bearings anyway. And it only costs $190 for a new gear set.

 

[fabio]

if you do decide to follow the advice above I would also install a posi since it's all apart.

 

[Bowtie70ss]

Yeah I didn't think about the R&P. Some dummy (me) forgot to put gear oil in my 12 bolt 5 years ago. Well on her maiden voyage mine did the same thing. It turned the gears blue and ripped the cage out of the rear pinion. I still made CB08 though.

 

[BillyGman]

if you do decide to follow the advice above I would also install a posi since it's all apart.

That's^ a pretty good idea too. But just to be clear on this, let me add that although it would make a lot of sense adding a posi unit to it due to the fact that there will be considerable amount of labor gutting out the rear, and you would hate to have to do that all over again at a later date if and when you decided in the future to go with a posi unit, the addition of the posi would be a performance upgrade, while the ring & pinion and bearing replacements are safety measures. So at the very least, I'd say that now would first of all be a good time to think about whether or not you're content with that gear ratio, or if you would like to go with a numerically higher ratio for better 0-80 MPH acceleration.

 

[xcessive_ss]

Thanks for the input everyone. Since this is my daily driver i'll pass on the performance upgrades. I have another 71 that I dump all the performance upgrades in. I guess it's better to be safe, especially after experiencing the lockup on the freeway. 30 mph was not cool, if I was going faster it could of been ugly.
Any idea on how much I should pay for labor for putting in new bearings and a R&P if needed?? It may be cheaper buying a used 12 bolt since swapping it out isn't out of my mechanical realm.

 

[Surfin' 66]

Food for thought:

Currently I'm selling a complete working ten bolt with working brakes, great for a daily driver, no problems, no repairs necessary, just bolt in and go.

I'm only asking a hundred bux for it.

I'm not suggesting that you buy mine, what I mean is that you might find a very affordable complete assembly out there in your own area for a similar price. They are around more than you might realize.

Good Luck !

Eric

 

[BillyGman]

Any idea on how much I should pay for labor for putting in new bearings and a R&P if needed??

I've heard as little as $200 for labor, and as much as $800. Both are extremes.