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2nd Gen Non-Engine/Transmission Dana 70 magnet debris

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Today I dropped the cover off the rear end (mod. 70) on the '96 I recently bought, to change the oil to synthetic. The truck has 46K on the clock, but when I looked in the cover, the magnet had a lot of "fuzz" on it. I know this is ferrous debris, but the amount startled me. If the original owner never changed the oil in the rear end, would this be normal? The ring gear to this untrained eye, looked o. k. not scored or pitted etc. Cleaned out all the oil I could, then sealed it back up and shot the Redline to it. I used the 80-140W as I plan to pull a 5th wheel this spring. It also has the LS as most probably do.



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I can't tell from here, but your description of "fuzz", sounds about right. The magnets are there to atract the small metal particals that comes with normal use. If you looked around and are seemed OK, then you will be fine. Could you tell if the cover had ever been off before? Just curious.
 
Y-knot, I'm going to guess the cover has not been off. If the factory used a gray colored sealant, then this is the first time in 46K miles. The bolts were pretty snug, and it didn't appear to have been removed but if a dealer did it somewhere, then perhaps they used the same goop. The oil that came out looked used, but not abused if you know what I mean. Like it went on an extended drain interval. It didn't smell bad or burnt, just starting to get a little darker. I admit I have not seen many ring gears etc. , but these don't look beat up etc. , so does this happen when the gears are first getting mated to each other from just using them? Kind of a "lapping in" so to speak?
 
I changed the diff. oil and found a similar type of accumulation on the magnet. The truck is a 1996 and had about 38000 miles on it.



No heavy pulling and no abuse but the junk was still there.
 
Consider this: When doing diff service, Most Chrysler service departments suck the old oil out when doing a rear end service. Which I think is crap, but that is what they do. I have a friend at work who had his truck servied recently and thats what they did on his. This makes me wonder how they do an auto transmission service.



Not much metal would be removed using this method. If you want it done right you got to do it yourself.



Just trying to pass along some helpful info.



Good Luck



Don
 
Synthetic or not, change it according to the owner's manual. If you have a plain rear end, you should be able to go almost forever. If you have limited slip, change it often. As the clutch material wears, it contaminates the fluid. This same dirty fluid lubricates both carrier bearings, both pinion bearings, and all four wheel bearings. I tried to go 100k with synthetics in my limited slip, and my carrier bearing races spalled out, ruining all the others with the grit suspended in the oil. The oil looked like it had silver spray paint in it when I drained it.
 
My Dana 70 has had this since it's first change at about 10,000 miles - when I switched to synthetic. After I installed my Mag HiTech rear cover I see "fuzz" on the dip stick. I now have 175,000 miles on my truck and the read diff is fine.



Bob
 
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