So I noticed a vibration in the rear of my dually that is driving me nuts. I take all four tires off the rear and put it in drive and I still get the vibration. I open the fill hole and stick my pinky all the way in.... no oil. I still a tie wrap in and out comes some fuel with bubbles all in it. I did a search but can't find what bubbles in the diff fluid mean. Whatcha think Alex?
Fuel?
do the bubbles have the content of gear oil? if not what type of fluid?
Vibration makes me think drive shaft or tires. Not much in a diff to go bad, unless it has a traction adding device. Low oil, bad oil and bad bearings will cause aeration of the oil. If bearings are bad you should hear a roar before you get a vib but not always. The fact that you found the level that low screams pull the cover and inspect. If pinion is good and tight and nothing in the case to indicate a problem, I would look at the axles out. I have lots of problems with rear tire balance on my dually.
Did you check it right after driving? Wouldn't the bubbles be caused from heat, plus the fact it was low would cause the fluid to get a lot hotter causing more bubbles.
The question is where is the fluid going? Got to be a bad seal.
Tires or bad u-joint would be my first guess on the vibs.
yeah what they said. i'd be looking at the driveshaft u-joint or the center support bearing on the driveshaft
I didn't tell the whole complete story as I was mainly concerned about the vibration. I know where the gear oil went to so that wasn't a big deal or a concern but thanks for throughing that in Jason I am looking at everything.
I was thinking it may be a diff problem because I put in 2 quarts of gear oil in it last night to fill it. I drove it to St. Louis and back in one day with a 35 ft 15,000 trailer so I was thinking I could have burnt the pinion bearings.
I took it over to my good friends at Jackson Power Train. We pulled the cover this morning, I am just getting to the office, and everything looked good. No metal pieces, no marks on the teeth or burnt smell. I did find out that I have locker in the rear. Also everything looks good with the Drive shaft.
When I left there I took it back to where I got the tires on to have them balance them again. I took that out of the equation because I was still getting the vibration with all four rear tires off the truck. With it jacked up you can see the rear axle almost vibrating side to side like a see-saw with the pivat point being the chunk. I don't know guys its pissing me off for sure.
Crazy question but did they check to see if the driveshaft was balanced? The reason I ask, I had a bad vib in a mustang one time and replace the u-joints still had the issue. I changed shaft and the vib went away. The weights have been known to come off.
Also I would start looking at trans mount, bushing, motor mounts, etc... Especially the trans mount the vib could travel down the shaft.
I know the feeling, I hate to drive something shaking like crazy. ItÂ’s ok in the jeep or something with huge mud tires, but not in a DD.
we did check to make sure all the weights where still on the drive shafts. Did check the trans mount.
side to side would be from the d/line or pinion, up and down would be the axle itself. (laws of physics)
check your yokes and ujoints again to see if they posibly got unseated. not likely but its a thought.