jlvink66

I had an exciting incident last Sunday while racing at Infineon with my Z. I was near the end of my second session in the morning when I got a meatball flag(mechanical problem warning). I couldn't think of what the problem might be until the next corner, the hairpin corner before the Esses. I get a humongous amount of smoke into the cabin as I'm exiting the corner and both my passenger and I exchanged a few nervous glances. As I pulled away from the corner I quickly checked my gages and everything looked normal. I didn't see any more smoke coming from the rear and I was not that far from pit entry so I continued on to the pit entry. I really didn't want to shut the track for everyone else.

The entire *** end of my car was covered in oil and it was real apparent that the smoke was from oil all over the mufflers. I jacked up one side of the car and I was very puzzled when there was no oil anywhere near the front of the car. The entire rear axel was dripping in oil but not the transmission. After tugging on things looking for something loose, I found a loose hose with oil dripping out of it. I have never checked out the lines to the diff cooler before but a quick disconnect line had popped loose and pumped a lot of oil out. I was able to pop the line back in and find some gear oil and a pump to fill it back up to finish the day of racing (after cleaning a lot of oil off the *** end and the mufflers).

John

*C7*

I assume the line on the bottom of the diff came loose. Was the line ever removed to drain the diff ?? If so was the clip removed and reused??

jlvink66

Yes, that is exactly what happened. I had the diff oil replaced about 9 months ago at the local dealer when it was having one of it's clunking episodes. I don't know if they replaced the clip. Is the clip supposed to be replaced each time the line is removed and is it hard to do? I'm going to replace the diff fluid myself here very soon.

John

Dicecal

Yes, the service manual says to install a new clip with fluid change.

davidfarmer

I doubt the clip failed....it likely just didn't seat properly.

jlvink66

I can't figure out why it would pop loose now. I have not had any off road excursions in quite a while.

John

*C7*

Depending on how they removed the line and or the clip the shape of the clip can easily be distorted.

Kent Moore has a tool to release the clip. If you pry it out with a small screwdriver be sure to bend it back to its original shape or use a new clip.

Maxx Schlick

I double checked mine after changing out the fluid one time, and was glad I did. I gave the line a tug and it pulled right out. Turns out I had not pushed the line ALL THE WAY BACK IN before installing the C clip. You have to push the line in untill you hear a POP, and it seats all the way in, then install the C clip.

If your C clip was not missing this could have been what was wrong with yours as well. If the C clip was on your line but the line came out anyway, then the line was not popped securly into the hole, before the C clip was installed. The line is in the hole but a good bump could easily knock it out.

If your C clip was missing when you looked at it, then it was never installed or was sprung so bad that it fell off.

The Techs I asked say they don't ever use a new C clip, just squeeze the old C clip back tight. The Parts guy also confirmed that the shop never gets new C clips from him.

jlvink66

I think you hit the nail on the head. I did not see a clip so it could very well have fallen off. Being ignorant about the details of this fitting, I popped it back in and pulled like hell and when it did not pull out, I assumed that was all I had to do. So I might have been very lucky that it didn't pop back off the rest of the race day. Thanks for the info!

John

Maxx Schlick

When you change the fluid go with the Amsoil..it cured all my grindy clunky rear end slip stick problems.
Now smooth as glass.
I wonder how many millions GM spent warrantyeing clunky rear ends because they used crappy diff lube. Nothing was ever wrong with the diffs, it was just crappy fluid all along.

I spent $3200 for a new transfer case for my AWD Astro Van, only later to find out that the real problem was the crappy GM fluid.

Maxx Schlick

The line does audibly POP into the fitting very securly. The C clip just secures it so it can't possibly pop back out. When you pull the line out to drain it, you really have to give it a sharp hard jank, and it audibly POPS out.
Like you said "you pulled like hell and it did not POP out".
Sounds like the line was put back into the hole but it was NOT POPPED back in, or it would not have just fallen out. They propably never put the clip back on at all.

BTW when you do pull the line loose, it is good to loosen the retaining clip that holds the line securly to the back of the diff cover. If you don't you may kinda bend the line getting it lose.

jlvink66

So do you use an entire tube of the Slip Lock with the gear oil?

John

Maxx Schlick

When I installed my line but didn't get it popped back in tight, it never dripped a drop after driving around for a few weeks. Sounds like you drove aroung for 9 months with the same thing.

I discovered mine just because every time before I go to the track, I put my car up on jack stands and spend about an hour underneath torquing bolts, checking things, looking for broken stuff, leaks, etc.
I gave that line a good yank, just to make sure, and it came right out, without "the ole pop". If you look right at it, it looks OK even if it is not all the way in.

Check out this broken retaining clip I found


Rather than replace it with another OEM weak link I custom made a stronger one

Maxx Schlick

4oz. of Additive treats 1-2 qts of gear oil.

crossfire7