Dana 35 appears to be leaking, but only at highway speeds

C

chuckie669

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Joined
May 6, 2020
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72
Location
Nacogdoches
Greetings. Just joined recently and started trying to tackle my issues. One issue is that the rear end appears to be leaking but only at highway speeds.

Noticed when I brought home that the gas pan had rear gear oil dripping and the passenger side axle was wet on back side only (front where mated to do is dry).

Cleaned it up and been driving for 100 miles with no leaks. Took it fishing today 75mph speed limit, don't think I got over 70 and when I got home the oil had come back.

I took a photo in the dark but tried to highlight the primary wet area. Can the axle leak where the dif and tube meet as shown with the arrow?

I could find no information there but attempted to look up inner axle seal with no luck. It's dry past the shock and dry on the dif. Any help is appreciated.

Rustyrear1.jpg
 
Not good! The oil will get thinner as it warms up and seep out more with highway speed spraying it on the gas tank. I’d get some brake cleaner and spray it down to lean up the entire axle/differential area in question. Take a short drive, see what happens. You can likely get a shop to weld it up.
 
X2 to what he said.

You can also put some UV dye in the diff, let it leak, and then use a UV light to see exactly where the leak is coming from. That's almost always where I start when trying to pinpoint leaks.
 
I had the same issue, exact same oil pattern, thought it was brake fluid, drove me nuts trying to pinpoint . Turned out to be a bad and leaking shock. Replaced the shock, cleaned it up, no more oil.
Ray
 
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