I am just left with a few things before I put my rebuilt motor back in. Just finished complete brake lines, hoses and brake overhaul. Doing leaf springs tomorrow. I probably need to look at the rear axle closer but I did not see a drain or fill on it. I want to replace the 90 weight oil in it. When I took the rear brake hose off the axle I was suprised to see the center of the brake hose hardware bolted into the axle. Is this where you fill it? Does anyone know where that the hose goes to straight off the axle from the brake hose hardware. WTF? What does it do? Where is the axle fluid drain and fill? I have a 302 C4 auto, 1972. I have the Chilton's book and all it says is fill it 3/8" from the top of the fill with 90 weight.
The fill plug is on the side of the rear center section. Uses a 3/8" extension to remove it. You won't find a drain plug unless someone added it to the housing. There should be a bracket on the body above that block to attach the hose to.
The hose that attaches to the retainer bolt for the brake hoses is the vent hose for the rearend. It runs straight up and into a recess in the body. Just deadends into that recess where water isn't likely to get into it.
Also, if you haven't bought the 90 weight yet, I started using Royal Purple synthetic in my rear axles and manual transmissions. It still is a 90 weight, but it really reduces the drag. You can feel the difference in how the car coasts when in neutral. It takes a lot longer for it to slow down. I'd use their motor oil too, but the stuff is expensive to be changing out all the time.
yep. There should be a fitting for a 3/8 drive ratchet to fit right in. and I like to use the synthetic in my cars rear also.
Draining Thanks for telling me how to open it. I am going to put in my harbor freight pump/hose apparatus and pump out the old oil and fill with new. Easier than putting in a drain.
Also, check that vent hose to make sure it's not clogged. They got away with plugging up over the years.
Another easy way to change the fluid in an 8" axle is to pull out that 3:00 highway gear and swap in some 4:62s, like I did .... Then when you get tired of only getting 5 mpg and cruising at 45 mph, you'll be changing the fluid again when you come back down to a set of 3:55s ...
250 6's and 302 v8's have 8" rear ends, Jack the rear up and put it on stands. crawl under the rear and find the ID tag. On the bottom of it it will have 3.00 or 2.79. that is your ratio. Tell your loacl parts store you need a rear end gasket they will look it up and get you the right one. remove the axles, remove the drive shaft, remove the ten nuts on the center chunk, remove the copper washers (if you have them and yes they are hard to remove), put pan under chunk, seperate the chunk from the housing, remove chunk, clean surface of the housing and chunk, install new gasket, reverse removal, you can leave the copper washers off if you like.
No Luck Used the 3/8 extension, opened the fill, put my pump tube in it and started to pump. Didnt work. Oil too thick and tube too big to get far down. Any ideas on how to drain it without a drain.
