Was in shop class today and I took a diff cover off a 8.8 on a Lincoln, I asked if he wanted me to clean it out with brake cleaner and a few people jumped on me and said it would eat out the bearings and seals

 

I've done it many time without any issues, it's a common practice to use brake cleaner to hose out a mucky diff.

 

I've done it on my XJ several times with no issue ever.
What are they talking about? Is it a LSD?

 

i have used it every time i have been in my diffs and they are still perfectly fine

 

No it was a open diff, I knew almost everyone on here uses it so I thought it was strange they said that

 

thats not odd at all. The premice is that you will never get all of the brake cleaner out of the bearings with the diff together. If its apart its ok, but together no.

 

I've never even blown it out with air. I prolly put a good 20k on it with no issues on the highway. I do it all the time to trucks I service. Only diffs I've seen blow are ones I've never touched LOL

 

Back when good brake clean was flammable, I was working at a shop when one guy pulled a diff apart and was going to put axle bearings in it. He cleaned the center with brake clean, didn't think, lit the torch to cut the bad bearings out of the housing and blew a fireball 15 feet out the other side of the diff. Nobody was standing on the other side so it was funny.

 

So is it.better to leave debris/ shrapnel in the bearings? ? Brake clean wont eat metal. Clean your stuff and as long as you put different fluid back in the diff it will be lubed.

Use Carb cleaner if your that worried it evaporates

 

if you have debris or shrapnel in the bearings I hope your doing more than brake cleaning it out.
and for the record. I have never seen it do damage, but that is the theory.

 

you should re-name your thread.. i was under the impression you were questioning running brake fluid in your differential... Not using brake clean to aid in cleaning the diff out... Maybe you can make a for us

 

I had shrapnel when I pulled my stock carrier out to replace axle seals. The bearings had 263,000 miles on them to be fair... lol