Hi all,
I've finally gotten a replacement differential that's the right ratio (yay!) and am nearly ready to install it on the housing. I'm very much hoping to be driving it within the next couple of days. A few questions about the next steps:

1) Is it safe to thoroughly rinse the entire inside of the diff with brake cleaner prior to attaching it to the housing? When I got it from the yard, it had clearly been left somewhere uncovered because there's a bit of sand and debris on the oil coating the gears, etc. on the inside. I just want to make sure that there's no possible way to damage anything up around the pinion shaft and seal if I start liberally spraying it to rinse it off completely clean of any oil, grime or grit.


2) I've cleaned up the housing as best I could with a wire brush attachment on my drill. Which should I use, brake cleaner or Dawn dishwashing detergent to clean the outside surface of the housing to dissolve any oil still in the pinholes? Or both? I wasn't sure if the dishwashing detergent would stay in the porous metal and cause problems either with reacting with the diff oil or with JB Weld or bedliner adhering to it if I use it.


3) Also, I was told to put a drop of oil (such as liquid wrench 3-in-1) on each stud prior to tightening the nut holding the diff to the housing to keep it from seizing up in the future. Is this right? Oiling studs sounded iffy to me.

Once again, thanks for any and all comments and advice.


EDIT:
Ok, so the can of brake cleaner says not to spray on painted surfaces. Inside the diff I see clean metal but also some of the surfaces look to be textured and even after wiping with a cloth appear to be black, so I'm thinking that some of the interior surfaces have black paint on them, for some unknown reason. So I won't be using brake cleaner.

So the new question is, what about MAF sensor cleaner? It makes no mention of painted surfaces. Any thoughts on using MAF sensor cleaner to clean any grit out of the rear diff before attaching it to the housing?

 

I would not use brake clean to clean a rear .Then some people clean every thing with it.

i only use it to clean the brake backing plates

Maybe even pressure wash

I would wash it out with clean fuel oil till it is clean .

then flush it out some more with cheap oil.

Then change the gear oil in about 100 miles unless it makes so much noise in that case no need.

Sand and grit will destroy it in no time.



I use never seize on almost all the bolts.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by washing it out with fuel oil. Fuel oil as in gasoline?

I'm also not sure what you mean by "change the gear oil in about 100 miles. Unless it makes so much noise in that case no need." It sounds like you're saying that if it makes noise there's no need to change it, which does not make sense to me.

Thank you very much for your response, but could you take a moment to clarify your answer? I would greatly appreciate it!

 

Fuel oil / Diesel fuel # 2 heating oil all pretty much the same

For sure not gasoline!!!

If the rear is making so much noise from being worn or not set up correct when you bought it.

Changing gear oil is not going to help sooner maybe later it will go kaboom .

 

I see, thank you for clarifying. :-)

 

if at all possible, get some biodiesel, even better solvent than dino diesel.

Also agree with Wyo on the cheap oil. Go Walmart for 100 or so miles, flush, then put in the other stuff.