rear diff fluid and break in questions

[t?m]

I'm not finding any info on changing the rear diff lubricant. Is this not necessary anymore?

Aslo I'm findind discrepent info on break in procedures before towing. The book says wait 500 miles and your good to go, I've read others talking about towing 20 minutes and stopping to let it cool down and other such things.

[Black02Silverado]

AMSOIL has a TSB on this subject. Most don't bother to do anything with their differentials and never have any issues. I always look at it a little bit of prevention never hurts.

[desrtrat]

i always do my engine, and diff(s) after about 500-750 miles. their not put together in clean rooms.. on my 01 Z71 when i pulled the rear cover off, i found someone's gum wrapper stuck to the inside of it. just a little peace of mind IMO

[scooby5121]

I did the break in 500 miles or 800 kilometers.

Then pulled my 9700lb. trailer for 18 hours to Thunder Bay ontario.

No issues pullling over waiting for anything to cool down.... Tranny stayed comfortablly cool,

Was a brand spankin new 3500hd crew longbox 4x4. 2008

 

to this date i have had the transfer case seals changed 4 times by two different dealers

and 5 tranny yoke seals done

and 2 pinion seals done

All this while i have been driving empty these have occured in 2010,2011.

So 2 years later i have had these done after the fact of breakin in the truck to pull my travel trailer

Scooby

[jake111]

You don't say what you have, but everybody with the G80 rear end who change the gear oil after the initial several 1000's of miles found that what came out was disgusting, with lots of metal on the drain plug magnet. However, this is normal for the initial breakin. The question is whether you want to run gear oil that has a lot of breakin metal floating around in it.

 

I don't remember how long I waited . . might have been as much as 15k miles and then I wished I had done it sooner. I changed it again after another 30k miles and what came out looked very good. So, I would recommend at least doing an initial change at 5k-10k miles, especially if it's a G80.

 

That said, I had an '87 Dodge van with a simple open diff and never once even checked the level. After 200k miles and over 15 years I got rid of it (donated it to charity) because of many other problems, but the rear end was always quiet and didn't leak.

[t?m]

It is a 2012 2500WT with 4.10 rear end and locking diff. Manual transfer case. I see in the book a schedule for transmission and transfer case oil changes but nothing for the rear end.