There is a drain plug at the bottom of the differential. There is a fill plug on the front side of the differential about 3/4 up from the bottom. The differential should be filled to this fill plug. The 5 gallons filled the differential on mine right to the fill plug. I always check the oil in the differential by removing this plug and sticking my finger into the hole and if I can get a little oil on my finger it is full. It is usually about 1/8 to 1/4 inches below the hole when it is a room temperature or if you just drove in it might run out. There is a vent on the top of the axle that allows this expansion or it will blow a seal. When draining the oil and it flows freely without removing the fill plug you will know the vent is not plugged up.
I bought a 5 gallon bucket of the oil from a local oil Co. and used a drill pump to pump the oil into the differential. My wife was holding the hose into the bucket while I was under the coach with the drill and the other end of the hose was in the fill hole. Another way to do it is when I helped Rudy change his differential oil in his Foretravel was to buy qt. bottles from NAPA. Rudy was under his coach and I was opening the bottles and handing them to him. There was a lot of bottles.
Rudy"s did not hold 5 gallons. So to answer your question fill the differential until the oil starts to run out.
Chappell and Mary
2004 Foretravel 36 foot
(This post was last modified: 07-31-2016, 11:59 AM by qcj.)
(07-31-2016, 06:29 AM)HoosierDaddy Wrote: Yes....I went out and crawled under to look for pinion seal leaks already and am planning for a fluid change. I don t mean any ill intent but it seems that if Bills axle died from lack of fluid the leak should have been obvious to anyone servicing the underside of the coach. I had a pinion seal leak on my Chevy K 2500 and you could see grease all over the bottom of the truck in the axle area. I think the lesson here might be for us to be observant and if somebody else services your coach specifically ask for a diff check.
Yes! That is the lesson to be learned! Don't assume that no oil on the ground means anything. You really have to look at the engine, transmission and differential (along with the axles). If you see oil, you should figure out where it is coming from and then check to make sure that you have oil in the right places.
I am suspecting that this will be an expen$ive lesson but will be happy if I encourage others to avoid my fate.
Update: Initial estimate is $7880 to rebuild the differential, provided they don't find anything weird in there when they pull it apart.
I have asked them to take a hard look and to make an educated guess as to what happened to the diff to cause the oil to run out. (There was little or no warning before the failure).
Also, Clarke Power sent me pics of what the coach looked like once it got to their shop (see attachment). Apparently the tow driver had grease on his shoes.
I keep a bag of disposable medical shoe covers by the entry door and ask mechanics to use them. I use them myself when refueling so I don't track in diesel. Of course since my floor is wood, it isn't quite as difficult to clean up.
The failures I have seen are rivets shear off. Rockwell does make a bolt kit to replace the rivets with bolts. In addition the rear end housing is reversed from a normal truck. The input shaft is pointing toward the back instead of to the front.
Chlorinated brake cleaner does a remarkable job at cleaning grease out of carpet...Don't ask how I know.! Just spray it on and immediately wipe with clean towel. Have the area well ventilated.
1993 Newell (316) 45' 8V92,towing an Imperial open trailer or RnR custom built enclosed trailer. FMCA#232958 '67 Airstream Overlander 27' '67GTO,'76TransAm,'52Chevy panel, 2000 Corvette "Lingenfelter"modified, '23 Grand Cherokee.
(08-01-2016, 01:41 PM)jimg Wrote: The failures I have seen are rivets shear off. Rockwell does make a bolt kit to replace the rivets with bolts. In addition the rear end housing is reversed from a normal truck. The input shaft is pointing toward the back instead of to the front.
I can rest easy now! Today I drained and filled my differential.
The plugs were tight, but yielded to my 1" socket set breaker bar.
I used the following fluid for the fill:
Castrol 37507 Syngear 75W-90 Gear Lubricant - 35 lb.
It seems the 35 lb is 5 gallons. At least that is what the container looked like to me.
It is just the correct amount as I had to pump almost the entire contents to get it to overflow through the fill hole.
Thankfully there was very little magnetic material stuck to the plugs. Now I just have to recycle the used lubricant and I am done.
Thanks to Bill Johnson for sharing his experience and emphasizing the importance of this often overlooked lubricant.
Russ
Russ White
2016 Winnebago Vista LX 30T
#530 ( Sold )
1999 45' Double Slide - Factory upgrade 2004
