“Houston, we have a problem…”
We started detailing the undercarriage and removed the rear axle so it could be cleaned up, resealed, and modified for 5 lug wheels.
The rear axle is removed for some refurbishing while the undercarriage gets some detailing
The axle was caked with dirt and oil and after some scraping we learned why.
The rear axle before refurbishing. Notice the dark, oily, caked-on dirt
Something catastrophic happened in its past. We're not sure what yet, but it resulted in a crack or hole in the top of the cast iron housing. This is a pretty tiny, light duty axle, adequate for use behind a 6 cylinder engine. Someone attempted a repair with a stick welder (we'd call it a booger weld). We turned it over to clean the bottom side and when uprighted again, found gear oil dripping out of the old repair.
We scrape off a bunch of crud and find a boogery old weld repair underneath
Did someone blow this differential up? We'll have to dig deeper to find out.
Old weld repair leaking oil
