Leaking Dana 80 rear axle
My 1994 33’ Holiday Rambler is equipped with a Dana 80 rear axle. Though I purchased my RV in Texas it spent its first 16 years in upstate New York. When I first purchased it I found a leaking pinion ...
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Geocritter wrote:
Good to hear reply's! Back about 5,200 miles ago I replaced the pinion seal myself. It was pretty straight forwards, I even found a Youtube video. The only issue with it was, like everything else on the underside of my RV, RUST! The worst part was removing the fill plug from the rear inspection plate when I attempted to top off the rear end lubrication. Someone had rounded the square hole out. I ended up removing the entire rear inspection plate and it wasn't until I heated the plug red hot with an oxyacetylene torch that I finally got the damn thing unscrewed. I replaced it with a cast iron plumbing pipe plug with a huge square external head. I put Permatex gasket cement on the threads when I reinstalled the new plug so that it'd never stick again (a saltwater boating trick I'd learned).
I'll check the axle vent to make certain that it's open. With all the rust and such on the underside it could easily be clogged.
Fire up, if in the future the leak gets worse and I decide to replace the seal I'll give you a shout. I have a Chilton's manual and they make servicing the Dana 80 look a bit tricky with shims and specific torque specs and such. The Dana 60 axle looks much easier to service BTW. Do you have a Dana 80?
Steve
Steve,
The Axle mfg. in our coach is made by MBA and, from what I know, it's considerably larger than an 80. The lug nuts alone are at 450 ft. lbs. of torque. I'm posting pics of portions of it so if and when you dig into yours, you MAY get an idea of what you're looking at.
Scott
