ARB nodular iron differential covers...

I realize that this is a product that isn't really for Mitsubishi vehicles, but with more Montero and Montero Sport owners doing SAS conversions I thought that maybe I could sneek a few comments in on ARB's new nodular iron differential covers.

My first coment is 'Wow! This thing is heavy!' My second comment is 'Man, is that a butt ugly color or what?' On a positive note, ARB seems to have done their homework. The covers seem to be well designed and well built and it's obvious after about two minutes that ARB paid attention to detail. The covers come with a drain in addition to the usual fill hole. What makes these covers unusual is that both the drian and fill plugs have magnets on the end to catch any slivers roaming around in your differential, o-ring seals and the fill plug has a dipstick; it even has fill lines etched on the stick. According to ARB these covers are solid enough and designed to reinforce the housing itself in an attempt to cut down on case distortion and gear deflection. I don't know if that's really the case or just marketing. In any case they certinaly can't hurt.

The covers come with pretty decent instructions as most ARB products do; explaining how to install the cover and how to figure out how much gear oil to use based on your old cover. This is useful information since the fill holes are not all at the same level on different covers. ARB's cover fill hole is significantly higher than the fill hole on my original covers and any other stock covers I've seen. The high fill hole is perfect for my front axle considering the amount of rotation my Dana 44 high-pinion housing has. Now I can fit a full two quarts in the front axle without a problem.

One thing that would have been nice to have is an o-ring on the cover to housing face. Not that I have had any problems with leaks or think there might be a problem. The o-ring would have been a nice touch.

I do have one major beef with ARB regarding their cover: What was ARB thinking with that color?!??? I mean, do hunters frequently mistake differentials for deer in Austrailia??? What is up with powder coating what is otherwise a very nice piece of equipmment BLAZE ORANGE?!?? Were they just out of BLACK??!?