How far can you drive with zero fluid in the rear end?

[Mike in Boston]

56 miles. Exactly 56 miles.!

Finaly hit the open road after hundreds of hours building this car. Put about 50 miles on a test drive with zero issues and put it away for the night all smiles.
Hopped back in for a quick blast at lunch and promptly sized the rear end in the middle of the road.
Lesson learned....don't forget to check the rear end

Mine was bone dry.

Seized the pinion bearing. Looks like I can get away with replacing that and the front seal..
Live and learn, the hard way !

 

[khryslerkid]

 

[Riverdawg]

Ouch that sucks. I'll keep that in mind once I get mine back and installed.

 

[Bb70charger500]

I'd say the car is junk now ! Maybe you should sell it ,how much is fair to you?

A little oil would of been good ,guess I should check mine when I get them I'm always excited to drive them that's a bad boo boo

 

[kiwigtx]

I drove 400 miles many years ago with a bad diff....Grade 4 ear muffs work a treat. You look silly driving along, but it beats listening to a buzz-saw in the rear end all day.

 

[RzeroB]

That's ugly ... reminded me of another incident where someone forgot to refill the differential gearbox with oil ... but it was a slightly different kind of ride ... differential gearbox heated up and seized snapping the input pinion ... and the results were a bit uglier than yours ... in this case the ride was a total write-off and scrapped!

 

[GetX'd]

Good to know on the 56 miles w/no gear lube in the rear end. I'll remember that and make sure I don't go over 50 next time I switch gears.... lol.

At least you seem good natured about it - I'd be crying in my milk...

 

[moparnation74]

I bet you could have cooked an egg on top of the pumpkin when you pulled in the garage....

Could have been worse and broke down on the road!

 

[68gtxman]

I had a 1972 Chevelle SS with a 4 speed once. When I PCSed to Korea, I parked it in my father-in-law's garage for safe keeping. After I returned back to CONUS, I took the car to a tire store and had new radials installed all the way around before I drove it from Tennessee to Washington DC. While it was up on the lift, I asked the mechanic to check the oil level in the transmission. He did and said it was right up there. Just as I pulled into the D.C. area, BANG! Broke the common gear and mating gear. No oil in the trans at all! I asked my father-in-law if anything happened to the car while it sat in the garage and he said, "oh yeah, I tried to move it around for you but I couldn't get it into reverse. So I hired a guy to come over and fix it for you. He took out the trans and saw that it was OK, but the shifter had a funky lock-out feature so he just reinstalled it." They never refilled the trans with oil!!! So I got screwed by him and the tire store mechanic. FYI, I asked my father-in-law to ensure no one even touched the car while I was away. FAIL!

Lessons:

1. Never touch the inside of the trans case with your finger when checking oil levels. You may get a false "read" on the actual level.

2. An oiless manual transmission will run exactly from mid-Tennessee to central D.C.!

 

[olddog67]

I found this out the hard way also on my late model circle track car. We changed the 3 spd. standard trans very quickly after a heat race to be ready for the 100 lap feature race. The track is a 1/3 mile, we made it to lap 94 (not counting caution laps)with no fluid at all lol. The only fluid that was in it was the remnants that stayed in and didn't run out the tail shaft from storage which considering it had not been used in 3 years was probably not much fluid. My analysis...Swepco is good stuff lol. Getting the trans to let go from the brass bearing/guide in the end of the crank was a different story...

 

[Mike in Boston]

All fixed. Roasted the pinion bearing.
Replaced both pinion bearings and topped off with oil. Back on the road again.
Now getting these damn hideaway headlamps to function is another story

 

[AMX364]

On a brand new 74 black and white it can go 6 miles without the axle bearings. Some people did not like cops, I guess.