Drippy rear end

[jachady]

Hey guys, I had been having issues with head torque causing my head gasket to leak causing the crankcase to over fill, causing the combined oil and coolant to wash out the grease in the u-joint, causing all of it to run down the driveshaft tube and overfilling the rear end, finally ending up washing out my axle bearings as it all escaped out the rear axle seals.
I got new head bolts, cleaned out the bolt holes and got the head torqued properly. I drained the "oil" and refilled to proper level. I drilled a hole in the bottom of the driveshaft tube about 8 inches from the bottom. I regreased the u-joint. And I cleaned out and regreased the rear axle bearings. I drained and refilled my rear end. I filled it with the rear end lube from Langs. I believe I over filled it as it was just below the bottom of the fill plug.
I have now daily driven the car about 20 miles for the last 2 weeks. Oil level has stayed consistent. No coolant in the oil. But I have a persistant and what appears to be excessive amount of oil/lube dripping out of the hole I drilled in the driveshaft tube. To me it seems way more than the amount I may have overfilled it. This is a picture of how much drips out. This is 2 trips worth. Could that much lube push UP the tube and out?

[Norman Kling]

Where is the filler plug located in the rear axle housing? If it is half way up, then you are too full. However later on they lowered the filler plug about an inch lower. With the lower fill hole, you fill right up to the plug, but with the earlier you need it about 2 inches below the plug. Also they make inner seals (after market) for the outer rear bearings. To install you need to pull the hubs and rear outer bearings and the sleeves. Then you put the seal in with the edge toward the center of the rear end . You might need to grind about 1/16 inch from the inner end of the sleeve. Try fitting the sleeve first. If the dimple goes all the way in you don't need to grind, but if the outer end of the sleeve protrudes, pull the sleeve again and grind some from the inner end. Replace the felt seals in the outer end of the bearings and fill the bearings with grease. For the plug, you drilled, you will need to place some gasket sealer around the plug when you re-install.
Norm

[Scott_Conger]

Plug the new hole in the drive shaft tube and clean the driveway

[Altair]

The rear drive shaft assembly has no oil seal and oil will migrate back up the shaft, less oil or heavier oil may help. They were never designed for oil, only a non-flowing grease.

[jachady]

Norman - I did inner seals when I re-packed the bearings.

Scott - I had read that if you were having issues with losing engine oil down the driveshaft tube, to drill a weep hole to prevent it from getting to the rear end. My head torque issues were because of stretched bolts that bottomed out before complete torqueing was achieved, or if I got to 45 pounds, it didn't last. I have had to drain the rear end like 15 times so I thought the hole in the driveshaft tube was a good idea. Now that my head torque issue is solved I do feel better about plugging the hole, but I am still anxious.

Altair - Should I have drilled the hole closer to the engine?

[FordFool]

Sounds like the plug in the transmission shaft is leaking or missing????? OIL in the UJoint?

[Altair]

Drilling holes anywhere in the tube will not fix the problem, if oil is getting down the tube there is a seal problem at the rear of the engine. In the early days when this would occur and oil would leak out the ends of the axles a quick fix was to stuff a wad of felts up into the axle housing to stop the oil from coming out. This was only a temporary fix until the engine was pulled and the rear seal repaired. Additionally in the day some people filled the differential housings with various grades, weights and amounts of oils, some times too much and it would also migrate out the axles and the common quick fix was to stuff felts into the axle housings to form a dam to hold the oil. In the day these felts were advertised as a required component, however they never were. In some parts books they are still advertised as required. Leaking oil out the axles can be a result of possibly two compound issues... A) rear engine seal and... B) oil in the differential housing ie. too much.

[Mark Osterman]

Pretty funny post title given that most of the people on this forum are old men in their “never years” ... as in “I never had to worry about that before”.

[Mark Gregush]

RE; believe I over filled it as it was just below the bottom of the fill plug.
Is the filler hole at the center line or is it below the center line.

[jachady]

Pretty funny post title given that most of the people on this forum are old men in their “never years” ... as in “I never had to worry about that before”.

I thought a while before naming the post. Tried to be funny while getting the point across

[jachady]

RE; believe I over filled it as it was just below the bottom of the fill plug.
Is the filler hole at the center line or is it below the center line.

Here is the plug, I filled it right to the bottom.

[Mark Gregush]

Filling to bottom of hole on that one would be correct, it is below the center line. Center line would be the bold above and to the left if you laid the rear end flat.

Adding; I wonder if the plug is in the tail shaft? If you got a lot of over flow from the engine, I would think that a lot of it would have come out the ball joint as it is not sealed and most have a somewhat loose fit between the ball on the driveshaft and the retainer.

[jachady]

I only had all the overflow when the head gasket leaked a ton of water into the crankcase. I don't seem to have an issue now that the head gasket issue is fixed.

[Mark Gregush]

Yes I understand. I was suggesting, when the overflow flowed down the tube, there would have been a lot of dripping at the ball joint and if the plug is missing it could have aggravated the situation.

[OilyBill]

I think "Ford Fool" hit the nail right on the thumb! I bet that soft plug in the transmission tailshaft is either loose, or missing.