Greasing The Diff Cover

when i had my gears installed this summer, the full install kits came with diff cover gaskets. prior to the gear install, i just used RTV to seal it up. it was somewhat of a pain to clean it up after removal but i'm beginning to think that it sealed up better. anyways, they RTV'd the gasket to the diff cover and left the gasket dry on the axle/ pumpkin side. i have started to notice that the flange on the axle side is starting to rust. i'm sure the best thing to do would be to go back to RTV but it's quite nice to be able to pop the cover and do an oil change without having to scrape the flange or wait for the RTV to dry. so i was thinking about putting a thin layer of grease on the axle side of the seal to help keep the axle flange from rusting and help seal things up a little better. do you think that would be a good idea?
btw, are you guys mostly running rtv or do you use gaskets? i feel like most people stick to the RTV and ditch the gaskets...
Thanks:wave:

I have only used RTV, and I'm pretty sure you are supposed to change the gasket after each use anyways. How often do you open up the diffs that scraping some RTV every once and a while becomes too bad? If not, you can go with some RuffStuff speacialties or another brand's heavy duty diff covers which have both fill and drain plugs, so you can change oil without having to mess with RTV.

No clue but made me think of an old jeep mechanic named Rex in Little Rock. He was refering to the weak model 20 CJ rear end but told me to allways use a paper gasket because rtv would let the cover move independently from the housing increasing housing flex. Another reason to use Dans Ruff Stuff stought covers and that is to stiffen the housing.

Gaskets seal better if your cover is straight but you should replace them after each removal. It's easier to just use RTV.

Stumpalump said:

allways use a paper gasket because rtv would let the cover move independently from the housing increasing housing flex. Another reason to use Dans Ruff Stuff stought covers and that is to stiffen the housing.

Click to expand...

How will paper keep the cover from moving over RTV? And how is the cover exactly moving, its bolted on? And if the cover was able to move, how would the stronger cover strengthen it if its not full attached to it? The stronger cover is heavier duty and won't bend or dent on rocks like a flimsy stock one will. Its this fact that its strong, and bolted to the housing that adds to the rigidity.

I dunno....I always used RTV with great success, but just regeared and installed a 44 under my MJ a couple months ago. The master install kit came with a paper gasket, which I used for the gear break-in. I was soooo nice after the first couple hundred miles to pull the cover bolts and have the cover come off so nicely so I could drain/inspect/refill. I went to Autobone and bought a $4 Felpro gasket and reinstalled the cover. So far, all is well.

It's six of one, half dozen of the other....both get the job done. The key to it, in either case, is to have clean, flush surfaces on the cover and the diff housing.

Jeff

I just use RTV, but I'm considering one of these because scraping silicone off is a pain.

http://www.lubelocker.com/

http://www.lubelocker.com/products.html


$17.00 for a D44 seal seems kind of steep........until you factor in the labor involved in removing RTV when changing fluid, brake part cleaner, new RTV. If you changed your front/rear diff fluid more than once a year, they would pay for themselves.

Personally, I like to pull the covers to change fluid so I can inspect the gears and diff.

My Dodge has a reuseable gasket that's a lot like the XJ oil pan gasket, metal incased in rubber...

It does make changing the fluid easy and quick.
That being said, I still just use RTV for the Jeep though.

Begster said:

How will paper keep the cover from moving over RTV? And how is the cover exactly moving, its bolted on? And if the cover was able to move, how would the stronger cover strengthen it if its not full attached to it? The stronger cover is heavier duty and won't bend or dent on rocks like a flimsy stock one will. Its this fact that its strong, and bolted to the housing that adds to the rigidity.

Click to expand...

1) It doesn't. However, RTV seals tend to depend on the parts not moving in relation to each other once it's cured - while a paper gasket, not so much. So, it doesn't hold things in place - it is just more tolerant of relative motion.

2) The stronger cover would work like a bolt-on truss - while it's not going to increase strength as much as a weld-on, it's still going to be better than sheetmetal. A bolted/screwed join is considered a "rigid" join - just not as rigid as a fusion process (like welding.) Also, the "stronger" cover usually has smaller screw holes (the tolerances for screw holes in sheetmetal are a lot looser than for machined from wrought or cast,) which means that there is also less relative motion. When you machine by the hundred - rather than stamp by the million - you can put a little more care into each part.