I spent the better part of the day under the rear of the Monaco, cleaning the Dana 70. It took almost an entire spray bottle of Zep Degreaser to get all of the built up crud off of it, but I got it done. Yet another item that had never been serviced. The orange paint mark was still on the fill plug, and the steel 41-10 4.10 axle tag was still in place. I even found the Build Date & BOM number right where they were supposed to be. The axle was built Tuesday, June 17th, 1975.
When I popped the diff cover, that familiar stench of old, original fluid hit my nose. It's a smell I first experienced in October of 2000, when I had my 1972 Suburban diff serviced....it had never been changed either. My buddy, who owned a repair shop cursed me, because his shop stank for three days.
I also lubed the front suspension....every single fitting needed grease. You could actually see the front of the rig lift a little bit, as I was adding grease to the ball joints.
So far, all the build dates are jiving with my Bill of Lading paperwork. It really is a shame I decided to go with a reman'd engine, instead of rebuilding the original engine, considering I had to have the reman'd engine rebuilt again. But, considering the original engine had been done once before, who knows if it could have been rebuilt successfully.
Tomorrow I go to Advance Auto and get the Fel-Pro Dana 70 gasket, lots of Brake Kleen, and fresh, synthetic diff fluid. Because the 50 gallon fuel tank darn-near prevents access to the cover, I don't plan on seeing the inside of the Dana again, so synthetic should last, until I decide to sell the rig.
