Towing with a 3.23 rear end

[fishinwrench]

11 minutes ago, MrGiggles said:

12 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

 

A crap load of 99-06 GMs came with the G80 locking diff, which work quite well, but have a bad reputation for grenading, since the things shock load every time they engage.

I've heard that for years, so when my G80 locked up and hesitated to disengage I panicked.   Took it to the shop immediately and had my boy pull the cover and inspect everything. When he pulled the cover I was blown away, because after 216k miles the lube that came out looked as fresh as if it was changed yesterday, and only a tiny bit of metal dust was on the magnet, barely enough to cover my thumb.  Everything seemed fine so I told him to get a fresh gasket and fill it back up.   I'm at 288k now and it hasn't failed to engage or disengage again.    

[MrGiggles]

5 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

I've heard that for years, so when my G80 locked up and hesitated to disengage I panicked.   Took it to the shop immediately and had my boy pull the cover and inspect everything. When he pulled the cover I was blown away, because after 216k miles the lube that came out looked as fresh as if it was changed yesterday, and only a tiny bit of metal dust was on the magnet, barely enough to cover my thumb.  Everything seemed fine so I told him to get a fresh gasket and fill it back up.   I'm at 288k now and it hasn't failed to engage or disengage again.    

Like a lot of things I think most of the failures were operator error, since most people react to wheel spin by mashing the gas.

They were a lot stouter in the 14 bolt rears that 2500+ trucks got.

My truck had one, it was replaced with an open diff at some point. It's got 315k now so theres not much on it that hasn't been dicked with.

[fishinwrench]

1 hour ago, MrGiggles said:

Like a lot of things I think most of the failures were operator error, since most people react to wheel spin by mashing the gas.

They were a lot stouter in the 14 bolt rears that 2500+ trucks got.

My truck had one, it was replaced with an open diff at some point. It's got 315k now so theres not much on it that hasn't been dicked with at some point.

The trick I've learned with the G80 is to just turn the front wheels for a second to transfer a little weight.  That almost always gets it to lock up, if it hasn't already.   Then just coast for 5-6 feet and it will disengage. 

Not sure why mine locked up then stayed locked for 2-3 miles that one time....but it hasn't done it again.   I've worked this truck HARD so I fully expected the rear end lube to be NASTY, but it was as clean as can be and smelled like brand new fresh lube.

I'm gonna take a guess that the ones that grenaded were from guys making a right hand turn and then roasting the tires halfway through the turn.

[96 CHAMP]

I had a 355 rear end put in mine when I ordered it,