Diff breather
As some of you know I've had my fair share of rear axle seal issues over the past couple years. I've repeatedly checked the breather line to be sure it wasn't plugged. But after another round of oil vapor on the nose of the 3rd, passenger side axle housing/rotor shield and at the base of the diff breather nipple fitting I suspected a plugged differential breather issue.
After hearing Sam, SAMCO (local racer fab shop owner), talk about pushed out axle and pinion seals on the race trucks directly from plugged diff breathers I decided to spend a little more time investigating. The issues Sam (his own truck as well as Chad Hall's race H3 truck) experienced was caused by diff fluid (they use 250 weight!!!) getting sloshed up into the diff breather line.
Originally I took the advice found here on MUD to run the rear diff breather line all the way to the firewall where it tied into the t-case and front diff breather lines where they terminated at a small fuel filter.
But upon removal of the rear 1/4" fuel line serving as the diff breather line I discovered diff lube in the line that was interfering with good breathing of the rear diff system.
Per Sam's suggestion I tapped the diff breather fitting to 1/4"NPT and am now running 1/2" ID clear tubing. I ran the 1/2" tubing directly up/vertical to the DS rear hatch along with a clear inline fuel filter.
I also ran the rear e-locker vent the same way only terminating up the PS hatch side...
If you have a similar rear diff vent run I'd give serious consideration to changing it!
Hopefully this solves my problem!
; and powering air tools. But it is somewhat complicated and expensive to replicate in kit form for the masses; hence the motivation to improve and hopefully simplify the system.
