Axle Lube changeout

[Gros Ventre]

I have now changed the axle lube in both front and rear axles. For the front one, since you cannot remove the cover, I purchased a pneumatic fluid extractor. It worked just fine on the front axle removing nearly all of the lube. I have now used it on the rear axle and again it worked just fine (was really nice to not have to pull the cover off!). I bought a John Dow Industries JDI-277EV, a 2.7 Gal pneumatic fluid extractor. This takes awhile (give it at least 10 minutes and more like 20) to pull the lube out since the lube is slow moving ~90 weight oil, and the lube comes out in slugs. But at the end of the day it did pull it all out. Two things I have done is to purchase a couple of feet of small, 7/64s", flexible rubber vacuum tubing to reach into and around the gears, and second, made up a sample bottle attachment to enable sending off samples to a lab. I use Blackstone Labs. I initially got this out of necessity to change the front axle oil shortly after delivery (glad I did as the stuff coming out of the front axle looked awful) and decided to use it on the rear axle and guess what? It worked just fine enabling just pulling the fill plug.

Sponsored

 

[Samson16]

Motorcraft® SAE 75W-85 Premium Synthetic Hypoid Gear Lubricant XY-75W85-QL

What is the recommended periodicity for the front and rear axle gear lube change? I couldn't find it in the manual. Did find the type which is not 90W apparently.

 

[Gros Ventre]

Motorcraft® SAE 75W-85 Premium Synthetic Hypoid Gear Lubricant XY-75W85-QL

What is the recommended periodicity for the front and rear axle gear lube change? I couldn't find it in the manual. Did find the type which is not 90W apparently.

My read of the owners manual says "not required unless axle was submerged." In my case I changed out axle lube early after delivery (and saw front axle lube I really didn't like). In this case I recently hit a pothole at 65mph on an interstate and destroyed the wheel so I've sampled the oil and just changed out the lube on GP in case the pothole drill did something inside the the axle.

 

[Samson16]

Thanks for that. I should be good unless an "as needed" situation occurs like a damaging pothole etc.

 

[hotrodmex]

glad I did as the stuff coming out of the front axle looked awful

So, it will be interesting to see what the analysis reports. I've read anecdotes that this is due to the gear marking compound used on assembly, and it is just color, not any bad fluid.

 

[Gros Ventre]

So, it will be interesting to see what the analysis reports. I've read anecdotes that this is due to the gear marking compound used on assembly, and it is just color, not any bad fluid.

Well, if that is true, why doesn't the rear axle show the same? My sense of that fluid was that it was gray, grainy, & not translucent. That was the oddest gear lube I've ever seen.

 

[hotrodmex]

Well, if that is true, why doesn't the rear axle show the same?

Different vendors? Not sure, just something I saw referenced.

The alternate is Ford has filled everyone's front diff with fluid that was bad out of the bottle? Yes, haha, I get that is entirely possible given all the #justgen14things, but still find it less likely.

I eagerly await your analysis results. I will probably be changing mine anyway as I have a whole bunch of really nice Idemitsu fluid I won't need for my RX7 anymore .

Sponsored