ARB lines

jeffj

jeffj

Caught the Bug
I just unhooked my air lines and going to install some braided steel lines. I'm new to the air locker and have a question. When I unhooked the rear at the axel there was a little gear oil that came out of the line. Is that normal?


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wayoflife

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
Yeah, it's normal in that it happens but no in the sense that it shouldn't. If you've been running synthetic gear oil in your diff, the o-ring in the locker will develop a leak and allow gear oil to pump back up and out of the air line. It's not that big of a deal though.
 
jeffj

jeffj

Caught the Bug
Ok, great. Thanks for the feedback. I was going through the guys build thread and he did use royal purple when he changed it. He only put 5000 miles on it, but it's been in there over a year. Do you think I should change it?


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wayoflife

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
jeffj said:
Ok, great. Thanks for the feedback. I was going through the guys build thread and he did use royal purple when he changed it. He only put 5000 miles on it, but it's been in there over a year. Do you think I should change it?
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Yeah, Royal Purple is synthetic and more than likely the reason why you have the leak now. Rookie mistake especially when you'd think running synthetic is a good idea. Being that you already have a leak, I wouldn't worry about it. Just be aware as you use your lockers, you will have gear oil that will spit out of your solenoid - again, not that big of a deal. Depending on how much you use your locker, the gear oil can fill the line and can interfere with the engagement of the locker. If that occurs, you can simply turn your switch on and off a few times and the compressor will eventually push the fluid back into the diff and allow the locker to engage.
 
onbelay

onbelay

New member
bthomas said:
Good to know about not using synthetic.


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Click to expand...

You're not supposed to run conventional that contains LSD additives either.

It's really difficult to find gear oil that meets ARB's specs at the auto parts store. Most of the time, the folks behind the counter won't even know whether or not their generic product has LSD additive in it, and the bottles are not labeled very well (e.g. the grammar or spelling is incorrect and you can't tell for sure).
 
wayoflife

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
A.J. said:
Hmm interesting info. Does this apply to Yukon zip locker as well?
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Those are essentially the old ARB locker so yes, it would apply.

As far as dino gear oils go, I don't know of any that come with friction modifier in them. That is what you would need to make a limited slip work. When in doubt, I would just use the cheap stuff and change on a regular basis. At least, that's what I've been doing and I don't have any more leaks.
 
bthomas

bthomas

Member
onbelay said:
You're not supposed to run conventional that contains LSD additives either.

It's really difficult to find gear oil that meets ARB's specs at the auto parts store. Most of the time, the folks behind the counter won't even know whether or not their generic product has LSD additive in it, and the bottles are not labeled very well (e.g. the grammar or spelling is incorrect and you can't tell for sure).
Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up on that too. Unfortunately the shop the did mine, I'm almost certain they used synthetic. I'll have to look when I buy, I'm due for a change. I typically use Valvoline dino.


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A.J.

A.J.

Active Member
wayoflife said:
Those are essentially the old ARB locker so yes, it would apply.

As far as dino gear oils go, I don't know of any that come with friction modifier in them. That is what you would need to make a limited slip work. When in doubt, I would just use the cheap stuff and change on a regular basis. At least, that's what I've been doing and I don't have any more leaks.
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Kind of annoying really. Oil and lubricant brands sell everyone on synthetic everything and so a guy thinks he is doing something good to help things last. Then come to find out (for our air locked diffs anyway) it causes more problems than good. Funny thing is I switched back to regular Dino right after gear break in time because I couldn't keep the synthetic from coming out the vent tube until the level was lower than I was comfortable with. Switched back to regular stuff and problem solved. Glad I did now. Hopefully I have dodged the bullet. No problems with oil in air lines so far.


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wayoflife

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
A.J. said:
I couldn't keep the synthetic from coming out the vent tube until the level was lower than I was comfortable with.
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If you had fluid coming out the breather, you had too much fluid in your differential - it's just that simple. You only need as much as would get the fluid to sit at about the base of your axle tubes. Anything more and you've got too much. Too much will cause the gear oil to foam and get pumped out by the ring gear.
 
A.J.

A.J.

Active Member
wayoflife said:
If you had fluid coming out the breather, you had too much fluid in your differential - it's just that simple. You only need as much as would get the fluid to sit at about the base of your axle tubes. Anything more and you've got too much. Too much will cause the gear oil to foam and get pumped out by the ring gear.
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Right. I get that. I had quite a time with this. Same amount of fluid but the royal purple would spit out of the vent tube on my 30mi. Commute. The Dino stuff did not. I can only guess that it was foaming more than the regular stuff. It drove me crazy. No matter now. I just won't use it.


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QuicksilverJK

QuicksilverJK

Caught the Bug
wayoflife said:
Those are essentially the old ARB locker so yes, it would apply.

As far as dino gear oils go, I don't know of any that come with friction modifier in them. That is what you would need to make a limited slip work. When in doubt, I would just use the cheap stuff and change on a regular basis. At least, that's what I've been doing and I don't have any more leaks.
Click to expand...

I saw Valvoline conventional in the auto parts store that said Limited Slip on the bottle, but no mention of friction modifiers. I wasn't comfortable with that so I went with Castrol conventional instead. I'm Hoping that once I get the ARBs in I can keep the headaches to a minimum.


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wayoflife

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
QuicksilverJK said:
I saw Valvoline conventional in the auto parts store that said Limited Slip on the bottle, but no mention of friction modifiers. I wasn't comfortable with that so I went with Castrol conventional instead. I'm Hoping that once I get the ARBs in I can keep the headaches to a minimum.


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Click to expand...

Right, if it said "limited slip" on it, it has friction modifier and you don't want it. You did good to avoid it.


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