Love You Gearly

As with all old vehicles, you need to place some cardboard and/or absorbent pads beneath the vehicle if you want to reduce the number of oil stains on your garage/shop floor. I had been noticing that the pad beneath the differential seemed to be collecting a little more oil than I thought was desirable…

Also, since I hadn’t changed the gear oil yet in the differential, I felt I could take care of a few things at once.

The differential cover came off easily enough. The oil (as differential oil usually does) looked pretty sludgy. More importantly, I did not see any chunks of metal or shavings in the drained oil. Very happy about that!

I cleaned up the differential with a few cans of brake cleaner, which managed to remove the vast majority of the 78-year old sludge. I was then able to inspect the gearing, and was also very happy to see normal wear on them, which indicates that everything is in alignment and working properly.

There was no gasket to scrape off, so the cover and the mating surface on the differential cleaned easily.

I had phoned Olson’s Gaskets to obtain a differential gasket, but I was informed that they did not have this particular gasket. I could make an imprint from the cover, then send it to them to make a gasket, but I felt it was easier and quicker at this point to purchase some gasket material and make my own. A lot of people will simply use RTV gasket material in this case, but due to the cover being old and somewhat misshapen in spots (I straightened it out with a block and hammer to the best of my ability, but it still will never be as smooth on the mating surface as a new cover), I felt a gasket was warranted. The gasket material I ordered was Fel-Pro 3127 gasket material and it worked very well. I also used a very thin coating of Permatex Gear Oil Sealant on both sides of the gasket.

The differential on a D-2 has a capacity of 4 pints. The manual recommends SAE 160 gear oil for warm climates and SAE 90 for cold climates. Accordingly, I ordered Lubriplate 90-weight gear oil from Restoration Supply Co. The manual is exactly correct, as when I added the 2 quarts of gear oil, the level was right up to the edge of the fill plug where it needed to be.

A quick spray of the cover with DuPont High Heat semi-gloss black, and everything is buttoned up and looking proper! Better yet, after a number of excursions and hours of sitting, no more differential leaks!