Drain the oil from the rear axle housing

leegall

To drain the oil from the rear axle housing in a 1951 Hudson, do you remove the lowest stud of the axle housing, or do you use a syringe to suck the oil out?

Thanks Lee

Jon B

Do you feel it entirely necessary to drain the oil? Most folks just add more, by removing the plug.

I suppose you could turn the car over to drain it, but barring that....

I wouldn't start disassembling the axle housing, I'd go for the syringe method. Your local auto parts store may have one of those plastic pump dispensers that you put into a bottle of transmission oil, and I'd stick the business end down through the oil opening in the housing, and "reverse dispense" the oil into a drain pan.

But in 40 years of owning the same Hudson, I have never drained the old gear oil out.

cardoclassics

Jack up the rear of your Hudson, use jack stands for safety. take off the inspection cover on the rear axle assembly, the one that has the fill plug in it, the old 90wt grease will drain out. If your concerned about draining the axle housings jack the left & right one at a time an let the grease drain to the middle so you can empty most or all of it. lots of more solid stuff some time after many years of sitting, so wipe it out with rages. wash it out with parts brush & parts cleaner or 50/50 gas & diesel, wipe it again. buy or make a new gasket, replace the cover & refill the rear axle, put the plug back in. your now ready for the next 50 years. Ron.

[Deleted User]

The 51 Hudson will not have a rear inspection cover its a sealed pumpkin. The later Dana diffs had the inspection cover. When I did mine I have a cheap hand drawn pump I pulled some fluid out then replaced with new Lucas diff oil. Unless its leaking its not worth pulling the front off the diff to drain oil.

cardoclassics

Whoops sorry Lee, on the procedure I gave you. 51HornetA is correct. 53 or later have the inspection cover, so the suction method would be the easiest thing to do with out having to pull the axles & third member. Ron.

leegall

Hi,

Thanks for the answers.
as the fluid is low i will top up with new oil

cheers Lee

Browniepetersen

I remove all the old oil when I get a new project. Most shops have a tube that they drop in and it sucks out all the old oil. Then all you need to do is put in the new oil. It is worth it to do it at a shop. I do not see that you gain anything, other than create a lead if you take off the inspection cover.... Just my opinion...

faustmb

Advance has a nice suction gun for this purpose for about $15 I think. It works great. The oil in mine was thick chunky sludge, I would definately see what's in there before you top it off, cheap piece of mind in my opinion.

cardoclassics

Why is it called an inspection plate? excessive wear, metal pieces, sludge.

leegall

it would have been so easy if it had an inspection plate on the rear of the housing.i was hoping that like some rear axles housing i have seen that you remove the lowest stud to drain out the old oil. i didn't want to try to remove a stud and do damage so i asked first

thanks again for your Lee