Check your vent tubes!

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Vikingdude

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I was under the truck doing some other stuff this weekend and noticed my vent hose was split. No big deal... Run to the parts store and grab some fuel hose. Went back to put fresh hose, and low and behold, the vent nipple was basically rusty dust. It also turns out it's a press fit, not a threaded nipple. GM likely saved $0.004 on each unit by doing this Looks like I'll be taking the rear end apart to get any contamination out and to punch out the old nipple. Glad I caught it before out snowy, wet winters destroyed my diff.
 

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454cid

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I think those are some kind of pot metal. I never thought about them disintegrating. I wonder if replacements are available. Converting to pipe thread would be nice, except the cuttings getting lost inside an already assembled axle.

I wonder if you could pull the old one out with a slide hammer.
 

Vikingdude

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New ones are available from GM still. It's 10 bucks, so I'll neglect to convert it to a threaded style. I doubt it will ever get changed again. It's more likely I'd change the axle to a heavier style at some point. Plan is a sharp chisel making short hits 360* around in hopes it will come loose. Lots of grease to catch any debris, and a very deep cleaning/oil change afterwards.
 

Nad_Yvalhosert

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Vent hose for transmission? Front diff? Rear diff? They're all plastic last I checked.
Yes Mr. Supercharger, those are plastic. Not the rear axle though, which O.P. stated and showed us a pic of...

"Looks like I'll be taking the rear end apart to get any contamination out and to punch out the old nipple. Glad I caught it before out snowy, wet winters destroyed my diff."

I'm sure you just missed it the first read though?
 

Erik the Awful

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As far as transmission vent tubes, the GM Genuine vent tubes are metal, and cheap. I put one on my transmission when I rebuilt it. I just tried finding them on RockAuto, but they may be out of stock at the moment.
 

Supercharged111

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Yes Mr. Supercharger, those are plastic. Not the rear axle though, which O.P. stated and showed us a pic of...

"Looks like I'll be taking the rear end apart to get any contamination out and to punch out the old nipple. Glad I caught it before out snowy, wet winters destroyed my diff."

I'm sure you just missed it the first read though?

No shjt Sherlock. I had vent valves on the brain though, those are all plastic.
 

Vikingdude

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Well that was a pain to get out! The winning technique was a sharp chisel making big swings all the way around. Once it came up about a millimeter or so, I wedged a thin prybar under it.


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