78 Dana 44 out of a Bronco with an ARB is spewing oil out the vent tube when I air up the ARB a few times. It also spewed oil out the tube a few times just sitting on my trailer not running going up to high altitudes (5000-6000 ft). What do you all think?

Someone mentioned some sort of baffle that should be in the 44 that prvents this. Any ideas?

Probably the seal on the little actuator ring. Read the article about the installation on the main page of pirate. It tells why people have issues with it.

pretty obvious the seals in the ARB are toasted

Ok took it apart. Pulled the ARB and checked the seal housing O rings. We thought they were bad and had 2 new ones and everything seemed fine there but it still leaked. We then got brave and opened up the ARB and checked the "bonded seal" which is inside. Called ARB and they said that if at any point the "bonded seal" is pressurized with more than 100PSI it can slide a little crooked and lose its sealing capabilities inside the housing.

I remember when I set this thing up, I shot some air into it to see it work and I know I was probably at around 120PSI when I did it. In fact,I remember saying "shit I hope I didn't F it up." We cleaned it and srtaightened it and put it back together. I was going to ereplace it, but ARB doesn't have any and they don't have them in Australia either. They're waiting on the manufacturer to produce them, so I put in the old. It holds air and I'm good to go!!!!

I do have one complaint and that is the way ARB hooks up the air line to a D44. Too many fittings, too many ferules. They got a little smarter and started using an O ring for the 3/16 copper tube out of the locker instead of another ferule, but still too many parts and too many chances for air leaks in my opinion.

I will say that Scott over at ARB is awesome and was a great help. He sat on the line as we tested the "bonded seal" and waited for our reply. It was like having a buddy in your garage who happens to work for ARB.

Ok took it apart. Pulled the ARB and checked the seal housing O rings. We thought they were bad and had 2 new ones and everything seemed fine there but it still leaked. We then got brave and opened up the ARB and checked the "bonded seal" which is inside. Called ARB and they said that if at any point the "bonded seal" is pressurized with more than 100PSI it can slide a little crooked and lose its sealing capabilities inside the housing.

I remember when I set this thing up, I shot some air into it to see it work and I know I was probably at around 120PSI when I did it. In fact,I remember saying "shit I hope I didn't F it up." We cleaned it and srtaightened it and put it back together. I was going to ereplace it, but ARB doesn't have any and they don't have them in Australia either. They're waiting on the manufacturer to produce them, so I put in the old. It holds air and I'm good to go!!!!

I do have one complaint and that is the way ARB hooks up the air line to a D44. Too many fittings, too many ferules. They got a little smarter and started using an O ring for the 3/16 copper tube out of the locker instead of another ferule, but still too many parts and too many chances for air leaks in my opinion.

I will say that Scott over at ARB is awesome and was a great help. He sat on the line as we tested the "bonded seal" and waited for our reply. It was like having a buddy in your garage who happens to work for ARB.


this is one reason i wont run ARB, i never have but i read up on it till i saw that people have leak problems, more poeple have problems then people that dont it seems, be better off with a OX if you want a selectible locker

pretty obvious the seals in the ARB are toasted

Wow, pretty obvious you don't know much about ARBs.....

Oil spewing up the axle vent line has nothing to do the seals in the ARB.

More than likely the vent line needs to be baffled to keep the ring gear from throwing oil into it. Common issue on D44s especially front axles.

Wow, pretty obvious you don't know much about ARBs.....

Oil spewing up the axle vent line has nothing to do the seals in the ARB.

More than likely the vent line needs to be baffled to keep the ring gear from throwing oil into it. Common issue on D44s especially front axles.

Ok! I took care of my air leak in the locker but as you know I still have the problem of oil spewing out the vent tube. You mentiuoned a baffle! Can you get more specific on where it should go and how it should mount. I'm assuming that it needs to be in the diff itself in front of the vent hole to the vent tube. Any ideas on how to mount it and what to use?

Thanks

Well I am running a 44 in my EB, I don't know about the HP44. But my ring gear is on the pass. side of the pumpkin and the vent is on the D.side So no oil gets close to my vent hose. If the oil is running up your vent hose, Then I would think your pumpkin had to be pressurised. Gravity being as such oil won't run up hill. I am unfamalliar with the arb, But it seems logical that it could be causing the problem. Good Luck, keep us aprised on your issue. I for one am very interested to see what the cause is
Jim

Any ideas on that baffle.

Wow, pretty obvious you don't know much about ARBs.....

Oil spewing up the axle vent line has nothing to do the seals in the ARB.

More than likely the vent line needs to be baffled to keep the ring gear from throwing oil into it. Common issue on D44s especially front axles.

bullshit.

Got it done.

I believe there were two things going on.

My HP 44 out of a 78 Bronco has the cast radius arms and the vent tube is not on top of the diff. If you are looking at the front of the diff, the vent is centelrine on the right hand seal and behind it. The casting has a channel that vents from the diff through the channel and out the vent tube. The outlet is a 1/8" NPT with a 1/16 hole in the end of it. It is also at alevel below the fill plug for the diff. Everytime I fill my diff I fill it to the fill plug and since the vent is below this level it naturally fills with oil. I believe that when I trailered it to the Sierras the climb in altitude caused the oil that was already in the tube to spew. Like a bag of potato chips swells when you climb in altitude.

The other part of this is that it leaked whenever I fired up my ARB. The leak in the ARB caused the diff to pressurize and since the vent is the only pressure relief, and it was full of oil, it leaked out any oil trapped in the vent tube.

Solution: I plugged the 1/8" NPT vent port and tapped my diff above the ring gear at about 1 O'cklock with a 1/4 NPT to 5/16 barbed fitting. With the acdvice given earlier about the ring gear possibly throwing oil up into the tube I welded in a 16 gauge baffle over the outlet inside the diff.

It's not back together yet, but I think I've got it licked!!!

No axle seals?? I don't know if I'm understanding this correctly.

Hope you got it fixed--my ARB install manual indicates certain D44 housings do not have the appropriate oil drain notch in the axle tube, on the ring gear side of the housing. Seams some of the housings only had the drain notch at the top of the housing, and not at the bottom, where it's supposed to be. When installing an ARB in these housing it's common for oil to be forced out of the axle breather and/or back up the air line to the compressor fittings. I've also seen a wright up some ware discussing this problem; my housing had the correct notch. With regard to the location of the vent, My HP D44 housing was re tubed by Currie--they changed the housing vent from the top of the center section to a position above center, on the rear of the axle tube. I haven't installed this axle yet, so don't know if this will be a problem--I assume not, since Currie does this for a living.

No axle seals?? I don't know if I'm understanding this correctly.
Yeah there are axle seals and the vent is on the centersection inline with the axle seal and a cast in channel lets it breathe withought compromising the seal. It is hard to explain...I guess!!!