What gasket do you prefer for the differential cover?

Four, wow, that's allot. Like a Jeep times two.
I'm actually using four of them :cool:
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I use these to seal diff covers:

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or

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No leaks with either. "The Right Stuff" one-minute RTV is particularly easy for a DIYer to use. It comes in grey and black.
Do you find either to be easier to remove when the time comes to change them? I have two lubelockers but my front axle must have an imperfection because I've buttoned it up twice now and can't get rid of a slight leak. It's not even enough to drip on the floor but it runs back toward the pinion and eventually a drop makes it onto the exhaust and I smell gear oil when I get to a stop light. So I'll be changing it soon.
 
The diff cover with one or the other installed or the residual RTV?

Regardless of which the answer is the same - no appreciable difference, not a factor in choosing one over the other.

Yeah, the residual sealant. I'm not afraid of swinging a hammer but my whole reason for lubelocker was to not have to remove the leftovers. I'd love to find a sealant that just peeled off. Wishful thinking so far.
 
Yeah, the residual sealant. I'm not afraid of swinging a hammer but my whole reason for lubelocker was to not have to remove the leftovers. I'd love to find a sealant that just peeled off. Wishful thinking so far.

Me too, but its not that big a deal unless you are pulling the same diff cover with some frequency.
 
Me too, but its not that big a deal unless you are pulling the same diff cover with some frequency.

that's the thing...I know I'm probably gonna put in a no-slip in the next year, but I don't want to wait until then to fix the leak.

I've never had the patience for chipping away at it with a scraper, so I've gone to a wire brush cup on my drill. The bristles are fine enough that they don't take away any steel but they make fairly quick work of the gasket. The drawback is the gasket material is converted into dust which is blown all through whatever casing I'm working on. I'll often try to cover it up with a plastic bag before I start, but at least half the time I catch the plastic with the wire wheel and rip the whole thing out in an instant.

I know it's not hard...people do it all the time, I just find it in particular to be the least enjoyable or rewarding part of any job that requires doing it. Purely psychological.
 
that's the thing...I know I'm probably gonna put in a no-slip in the next year, but I don't want to wait until then to fix the leak.

I've never had the patience for chipping away at it with a scraper, so I've gone to a wire brush cup on my drill. The bristles are fine enough that they don't take away any steel but they make fairly quick work of the gasket. The drawback is the gasket material is converted into dust which is blown all through whatever casing I'm working on. I'll often try to cover it up with a plastic bag before I start, but at least half the time I catch the plastic with the wire wheel and rip the whole thing out in an instant.

I know it's not hard...people do it all the time, I just find it in particular to be the least enjoyable or rewarding part of any job that requires doing it. Purely psychological.
If anyone ever watched me cleaning the gasket surfaces after I pulled the covers they'd be saying something to the effect of "how the hell does that retard think that's going to work?"

I don't get them spotless, I scrape off the high spots down to the metal surface in about 30 seconds, peel off the boogers in another 30, do the same to the diff and then apply RTV and put them back on. Gaskets are to fill in the imperfections, if I don't scrape it out of the low spots, they are still filled and even if they aren't, the new RTV will fill them in. They never leak due to my methodology.
 
I use lubelockers on everything. Even if you don't ever plan to remove the cover again, I'd still splurge for these. They never leak. Ever.

I and at least a couple others here will disagree on that. I absolutely think they're the way to go when they'll work but they do seem to be a little more sensitive to an imperfect sealing surface. If they seal up the first time, they'll probably be good but sometimes they just don't.

For me, it seals up great in my rear 44 but the front 30 won't seal regardless of how strictly I follow their installation process.