Help Id Debris in Gear Oil

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elkaholic

elkaholic

Left turn ...freakin wipers!
10 Year
Joined
Sep 23, 2011
Threads
43
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3,819
Location
Ridgeway, SC
Last edited:
Very strange. Were a couple of them gear chewed? Guessing not strong enough to cause any damage, but glad they were found and removed. As to identifying them, I'm stumped.

:beer: R
 
Not that I could tell as there were no real marks on them. They were simply folded in half and flattened which took some pretty good force as I really could not bend them with pliers. They may have run through the pattern, but not thought the meat of the gear mesh :meh:. The rest of the debris was what I would consider normal. At this point, I'm gonna keep running it and listen for any unusual noises which is kinda hard since the tires are badly cupped and noisy. Will probably change at least the rear lube in 6 mo or 5K miles and see what's there then.
 
I have no idea what that part is. Are they magnetic? Maybe someone dropped those in there to pick up metal dust in the oil?
 
GLTHFJ60 said:
I have no idea what that part is. Are they magnetic? Maybe someone dropped those in there to pick up metal dust in the oil?
Click to expand...

If you mean magnetic as in ferrous material that is attracted to the magnetic drain plug, yes they are that and were actually under the normal "fuzz" on the plug. If you mean magnetic as in an actual magnet, no they are not. I am baffled ...
 
elkaholic said:
If you mean magnetic as in ferrous material that is attracted to the magnetic drain plug, yes they are that and were actually under the normal "fuzz" on the plug. If you mean magnetic as in an actual magnet, no they are not. I am baffled ...
Click to expand...

Yeah, that doesn't make any sense. I've had a number of LC diffs apart (40/60/80) and that's something that's included in the assembly procedure, unless that black thing extremely deformed from its original shape.
 
I do not think that it is deformed (other than the two that are folded over). They appear to be thin tempered or hardened steel and each is formed the same. If you look closely at pics 2-4 you can see they are uniform in shape and size (though some have been worn down).
 
I have never been in any diffs myself, but i have never seen those in one before. Send those pics to ECGS and see if they have an idea. Then again i have never rebuild a cruiser locker either. All of the other lockers yes but never a cruiser factory locker. Hmmm.
 
Now I am worried .. I stumped Darin :censor:

Actually got a possible answer on the referenced thread that makes sense .... which means that there is no way in h-ll that it is correct. Will see if ECGS has any clue.
 
I deal with a guy at NC State that does scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) for some of our investigations at work, that would be able to tell you if the material is the same composition (down to the % of elemental atoms) as what the axle housing is. That and you'd get some really cool pictures of the gouges in the disc from the drill bit (if it is that).
 
@GarnerFJ40
Brian - That would be cool, but I do not think it would be worth the cost. Thanks for offering.
 
I don't think it's worth worrying about. If the diff wasn't making any noise, I'd just fill it back up and hit the road again.
 
It would be totally free, but I'd have to wait until the next time I need samples run though. Paid by the hour, and we rarely use the whole time up... Save me one, I'm curious...
 
Brian, shoot me a PM with your address and I'll mail one or two to you.
 
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