I bought a Dana 60, only thing that sucks is that there is scale rust inside the tubes of my GM Dana 60 front axle
. I guess water or something sat inside the tubes. I'm talking about small chunks of metal falling of inside the axle, I don't think it is structural damage though, I think it will be fine. But the only way i can think of to clean it out is either sand blast inside the axle tubes or run a long wire wheel brush down the axle tube and weld a long metal rod to it or something. I don't want rust /and debris getting inside carrier when i change axle shafts in the future. Any body else had this same problem?
Thanks
I had quite a bit of scale and small metal shavings on the inside of my 10-bolt rear. This less than 10k miles after it was "rebuilt"...
I was told to avoid media blasting the interior of the housing. You could accidentally eat away material on the critical surfaces, like where the carrier bearings ride (this from the mouth of the guy who blasted my 10-bolt's exterior).
I got the idea to use a brake cylinder hone from Mr. Smartass (Justin). The hone is the type that you'd use on a disc brake caliper. They're like $8 at Auto Zone. Replacement honing stones are like $3. I bought two 12" extensions from Ace Hardware (probably $5 each). They're made for a cordless drill. I put them together to make a 24" extension, put the hone in one end, and chucked the other end into my drill.
I used some PB Blaster as a "honing oil", because that's what I had on hand, although I'm sure WD-40 would work fine, or something similar (not brake/carb cleaner, it's not slippery enough and will evaporate too quickly). Apply that stuff liberally. You may need to add more as you go. Some real honing oil would be ideal.
Work from the outer end toward the pumpkin, stopping short of letting it slip all the way out of the tube. Get the edge of the honing stones to just pass the end of the tube. You don't want it to go all the way in and hone the carrier bearing surfaces, or the seal surface at the out end near the C's.
Do it a few times. I stopped between each pass and blew the debris into the pumpkin with compressed air. I then applied more oil, repeated... You'll start to see the inside of the tube getting shiny. An easy way to tell is to put something white (like an index card) at one end while looking down the tube. You'll be able to see the spots that need more attention. Do it until the whole thing is mostly shiny.
Take the whole housing into the driveway or where ever. Drain as much fluid as possible into a pan. Then liberally spray the inside with a good degreaser, like Purple Power. Rinse it with a water hose using a good sprayer on the end. Add degreaser, rinse again... Repeat that process until it's *really* clean. After rinsing, there should be NO oil, debris, or degreaser left.
You'll have to spend a few minutes getting all the loose scale and metal shavings out of the threads and nooks and crannies. A small magnet may help.
To finish up, dry it out completely with compressed air, then
quickly spray in something to keep rust at bay while you reassemble it. Again, a light coating of WD-40 should work well for this.
This process was totally worth it, and took maybe 45 minutes.
My $.02...
