After all of the fun of getting the brake drums off of a 1961 Studebaker Dana 44 TT (I swelled one of the axle ends getting it disassembled I pulled the inspection cover and black lube poured out (and over the the catch container) I didn't notice immediately that there was some solid material hanging over the opening after I removed the cover. I removed quite a bit of this "gelatinous" material, first thing I thought of was that someone had added sawdust but it just didn't seem quite like that either. Sorry...no pictures, I thought I had taken a picture but NADA. Any idea if this might be a somewhat "normal" situation with the addition of a posi track additive to conventional rear end lubricant? I just hate to spend the time cleaning it up and having just one more piece of heavy junk to get rid off.
It might be just because the lube is over 50 years old. I would just change it, run it a while, then change it again. Sent from my Trimline
Agree with squirrel.. One other thought, does this housing have the axle tubes drilled and tapped for grease fittings at the wheel bearing? It was pretty common on Dana axles in Studebakers until the late 50's anyhow. I've seen some where the whole axle housing was packed with wheel bearing grease, because your friendly lube change place would pump grease in a fitting until it came out somewhere else.
I just pulled an oil filter housing off of an engine that has sat since '92. There was no filter in it. The bottom of the housing was 2" deep of some kind of solidified mung. At first I thought it was grease. As I dug it out, there were pocket of oil in it. I had gotten oil when I drained the pan. It was dirty but it was oil. The housing, with no filter, must have been catching heavy stuff for a while. I'm going to do the fresh oil flushes, if it starts Mike
Drug a 61 Chevy out of a field. Found out it hasn’t been tagged since 74. The dope in the trams looked like wax. Soaked it in diesel fuel for several days. Still ended up scraping most of it out. Several cans of brake cleaner got the rest. I have put a couple hungered miles on it. Will change it soon.
I haven't pulled the axles yet but the "material" was sorta like gun grease That could very well have been the case, thanks for that thought @62SY4 I will be putting new axle seals as well as a new pinion seal and remarkably the pinion had not leaked, makes me wonder if there were many miles on the car.
A old timer I use to work with talked about filling them with half 90w and half wheel bearing grease to quiet them down back in the day, he had a lot of used car lot experience so it may have worked at least for a little while...........................
We have used “corn head grease “ on a few units at work with leaking diffs or drive units that our customers where either at the end of there lease or waiting for there new forklifts to show up, so basically bubble gum and coat hanger fixes for the last few months of service. it’s an oily , thick, thin, gloopy, stuff works very well for lubricating gears amd not having leaks when you have a seal failure. maybe that’s what’s in there, I know back in the day guys would mix oil and grease together and make this stuff, now it’s available in a tube.
As mentioned it could be too much grease, but I popped the valve covers off a 265 from a 55 Chevy that had been sitting since the early 60’s, there was an inch of goop oil on the heads. Nothing drained.
Look and see if there are pipe plugs in the flared portion of the axle tube where the bearing rides (right adjacent to the backing plate flange). The plugs 'should' be clocked to the rear of the housing, i.e. the cover side. The OE plugs used a slotted head, but could be grease fittings or square/hex head pipe plugs. If there isn't evidence of ports, then it's old oil or filled with who knows what.
No... As mentioned...just REALLY old, over used oil. Probably had some moisture in it too. For the record, posi-lube in the separate bottle (like the GM stuff), is in a very small bottle, and is lighter weight than the actual differential oil. Differential lube with a pois additive already in it...you cannot tell the difference by looking at it over non-additive oil. You want to hear a good one... The fluid that Studebaker used in the early automatic trans. cars...was clear ! Mike
I recently bought Switch Pitch, TH-400 transmission, that had sat on the shelf of a transmission shop for Y-E-A-R-S. This transmission had the stock bell-housing cut off of it, and an aftermarket, A-1 Transmissions (?) bell-housing attached using the front pump bolts. This bell-housing also has built-in, Tri-Five Chevrolet bell-housing mounts. I tore it down to check everything out, and ALL the assembly gel had turned to wax, or a hard grease. Have't seen that before, so it's a good thing I took a look inside. All the lined plates have very visible "Raybestos" imprinted on them, and everything is clean, with the exception of the assembly gel turning to wax/grease. Heat and time would be my guess on both your issue and mine. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
Likely the 265 owner was using non detergent oil, in the 60s that was common, especially pulling apart the old stove 6. Not changing oil enough can do it also.
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