I have a dana 60 35 splined ARB in the front of my cruiser, it blew the o-rings so i got some new ones in along with a new u-ring, i put it all back together and went out to test it, well, the damn thing lasted about 1 hour before it blew one of the o-rings again. Now when i was had it all apart, i did notice some grooved wear marks on the inside of the ring that slides over the o-rings. I got the unit used so i have no history of use on this thing.
What could cause the grooves and do you think that is what's blowing the o-rings... its really aggrevating the piss out of me..
And I didnt roll the o-rings onto the o-ring seats, I did stretch them around...
HELP!!!!!!

By the way, my rear arb never gives me any trouble, wtf is up with the front one?

those grooves get there cause the arb doesnt have enough preload on it so the carrier moves around under load and ruins it this usally happens when people try to do it them selves you need a new seal hoeseing ring and you need more carrier preload

Originally posted by GearMan
those grooves get there cause the arb doesnt have enough preload on it so the carrier moves around under load and ruins it this usally happens when people try to do it them selves you need a new seal hoeseing ring and you need more carrier preload

Agree with above. Pressure blow-by combined with the carrier slop is what is killing your O-rings.

ok, so now here is where i am at, was told the housing should be spread to remove or install the carrier, well folks, when i took this thing apart the first time, alittle jiggle once the bearing caps were pulled and out it would fall.... so is this where my problem lies,, it seems that who ever set this up the first time didnt spread the housing to set this up.....so my question,, are my above assumptions correct on needing to spread the housing to get the bearing preload and backlash set correctly??

I am and have always been anti-ARB. I say just sell it, throw in a spool or welded spiders, and use the ARB money to buy some West Texas redneck ram hydro assist. Keep It Simple Stupid.

well, good answer, but not the one i am looking for..but i have the pieces to fix it, from what i have seen the arb is fine, just installer error or poor maintenance is the cause of failure....

you dont need a spreader to do it you need a BFRH Big FXXXKING Rubber Hammer and make sure it is tight enough in there to need the BFRH use the old seal houseing as your dummy shim and ad shims to it until it is hella tight you wont get it over tight

hey Sean, I think i am going to go ahead and give you a call to make sure I understand everything...

maintainance?
how come detroit owners never mention maintainance required?
what maintainance, other then an oil change every 10yrs or so, do difs need?

maintenance, nah, it was this dip shit that set it up the first time, turns out there was basically no carrier preload at all.... i almost have it back together... should be going the middle of the week...oh what fun..

Seems like I have heard of this happening when the axle breather's clogged as well. Since you're doing diff setup work, I suspect this was already handled at your experience level, but blowing in an hour seems like about the amount of time for the diff to get nice and toasty and get some internal air pressure going.

Originally posted by DougM
Seems like I have heard of this happening when the axle breather's clogged as well. Since you're doing diff setup work, I suspect this was already handled at your experience level, but blowing in an hour seems like about the amount of time for the diff to get nice and toasty and get some internal air pressure going.

For axle seals yes, ARB seals no. I agree with Gearman on this and he is the expert.. I have never had to spread a case to swap carriers/gears, I just use a BFRh to put it in and a big set of pry bars and a bfh to pull them out.

when i pulled the carrier to see what had blown there was alittle nick out of the side of the o-ring...the outside o-ring is what blows and that is the side with the nice grooving in the inside of the housing....
the breather is clean, it blows air out nicely when the o-ring goes....:D