Let's talk Dana 80 axle temps

As Grit Dog said earlier, DANA 80s are lubricated from the differential.
Are you sure it is a DANA 80 and not a DANA 60?

Huntindog wrote:
It is not just full floating rearends that use the differential oil for the bearings. Semi floaters do as well. In fact I have never heard of a conventional rearend that uses grease for them...FWIW, I have totally rebuilt axles incuding setting up new Ring and Pinion gears.

Now your showing your age.........About 1964 the auto/light truck manufactures switched to axle bearings that lubed with def. grease. Before that the press on axle bearings has grease in them with seals on both sides. MOPAR used tapered axle bearings pack with grease and seals on both sides of the bearings. The right side axle bearing had an adjustment to set the end play.

Richard

RLS7201 wrote:
Now your showing your age.........About 1964 the auto/light truck manufactures switched to axle bearings that lubed with def. grease. Before that the press on axle bearings has grease in them with seals on both sides. MOPAR used tapered axle bearings pack with grease and seals on both sides of the bearings. The right side axle bearing had an adjustment to set the end play.

Richard

My family had both a 1965 Coronet and Belvedere that had this set up. What a pain and nobody seemed to know how to work on it by the late 1980's.

To the OP.... yes check the fluid level. If it is over 150k miles or 20+ years it would be OK to just change the fluid.

To the best of my knowledge , this is a full floating axle that is oil bathed. With an idea of some average temps I would gain peace of mind until I am able to pull the cover + shafts and inspect the hub bearings along with diff.

time2roll wrote:

RLS7201 wrote:
Now your showing your age.........About 1964 the auto/light truck manufactures switched to axle bearings that lubed with def. grease. Before that the press on axle bearings has grease in them with seals on both sides. MOPAR used tapered axle bearings pack with grease and seals on both sides of the bearings. The right side axle bearing had an adjustment to set the end play.

Richard

My family had both a 1965 Coronet and Belvedere that had this set up. What a pain and nobody seemed to know how to work on it by the late 1980's.

To the OP.... yes check the fluid level. If it is over 150k miles or 20+ years it would be OK to just change the fluid.

You are correct. I have never worked on anything that old. I try not to make definative statements on these sort of things as no matter how rare it may be, someone on the internet will bring it up.:)

enblethen wrote:
As Grit Dog said earlier, DANA 80s are lubricated from the differential.
Are you sure it is a DANA 80 and not a DANA 60?

A Dana 60 rated to carry 9450 lbs?:E

I have a dana 80.

1999 F53

I recently had work done on my Chev P-30 including rear axle bearings and seals. Ordered parts as shown for Spicer Dana 80. None of the parts were correct as the axles were different then shown for Dana 80. My axles did not have flange on end but a sprocket. Seals were larger on mine. Spindles style were different. Bearings were flat and not tapered.

valhalla360 wrote:
I assume we are talking about the hubs (out by the wheels), not the differential (aka: pumpkin) in the middle.

Unless you are heavily loaded or have other reason to believe you are putting more strain than normal on the bearings, I would pull them apart to make sure they still have grease in them and there is no other apparent damage.

Obviously you are talking about something you know nothing about. Those full-floating axels are lubricated with the gear oil in the rear end not grease.