ARB sending gear lube up the air line

If anybody has any ideas as to why my ARB in my Dana 30 is sending gear lube up my air line when I disengage the locker, I would certainly like to find out why it's doing this. With both lockers engaged, my compressor takes about 10 minutes to kick back on, so if there is some leak it must be small. When I disengage the locker, lube will come out of my solenoid. Any advice would be helpful.

Is your vent line clear? I'd bet that you have a plugged axle vent line and when pressure builds in your diff from heat, the only way out is through the air line. Since that is submerged in oil, the oil gets pushed up the line.

It's worth a shot.

Steve

I think this is normal for the ARB. As far as I know, over time, some fluid will burp it's way up the tube.

How old are the solenoids, etc.? Depending on how old your lockers are, things may have been upgraded. Call ARB.

my solenoid has puked oil since day one... I'm not worried about it...

In fact.. I'm glad... The compressor will condense moisture into water.. I don't like the idea of water in the ARB... puking oil should keep rust at bay...

thanks, i'll give the air line a shot, but my solenoids and lockers themselves are only five months old. the main thing that was throwing me off was the fact that my rear end wasn't doing it and also my brother has a YJ with an ARB in his front end and his doesn't either. It also may be because my solenoids are mounted horizontally to clear the hood. I need to change my fluid anyways, so i'll check it out while i have it apart.

I've had the same issue and know of four others, all with the 'new and improved' D30 ARB. The first time it happened I checked/changed the fluid, cleaned the diff breather, switched to 85w-140 and it went away for about 8 months. I thought the diff might have been overfilled.
But it's starting again so I'll probably do the same thing.
It hasn't affected it's operation.


Ron

Easy temp fix, clean the line out with brake clean.

Harder fix, but lasts longer, replace orings (not uring) inside diff. Requires pulling diff but no setup involved, so a good mechanic can do it.

mark

I've had the old style D30 ARB and D44 ARB's and I had cronic issues with oil in the line on my D30, but never on the D44. The O-ring on the D30 is tiny compared to the ones the D44 ARB uses, and oil getting past the o-ring is what's happening. I r&r's the o-rings a couple times paying strict attention to not get them twisted, to make sure the non rotating part wasn't being tweaked by the bearing cap where the line comes through and such. I switched to a D44 front and installed a D44 ARB and haven't had the oil problem yet. Just another advantage of the D44 front. Jeff