This is a pic of the inside of a '78 F250 HPD44 housing.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid89/p6f1a42d37eb25607e9303b56a79e060c/fa7edd7a.jpg
See that gouge where the bearing race sits? Is this normal? Breather?:confused:

It appears to be a chip or sumthin.. Id run it.:confused:

im kind of curious as to how that would happen (maybe a shitty install), but i seriously doubt that the small chips that haven been removed will affect the structural integrity of the pig


if you are really scared to wheel it send it my way, ill take the boat ancor off your hands

I cant really tell from the picture but some Dana axles have cutouts like that in them so you can pound out the bearing race with a punch. Its kinda hard to tell from that pic what exactly that is. I would run it.

Don't fix it till its REALLY BROKEN!!:D

I agree with Geepin. This is probably cast into the housing, although I assumed it was an oiling passage. The cutouts he mentioned are for the pinion bearing races. It is interesting to note that in the low pinion Dodge front that I used for this photo,the opposite carrier bearing seating area only has the relief cut out at the bottom, and doesn't have an extra one 90* up like on the driverside. I thought it would be symmetrical.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b3cf02b3127cce82c7b363d72b0000000612

Thanks for all the replies!

I'm now prettty sure that it is a oil passage to the breather. I sprayed brake cleaner through the breather hole outside the housing and it flowed right out of the space. I will clean it out like shelljeep's so it doesn't look like a defect.
:emb4:

Thanks again!