I just posted about my master cylinder being weird i might as well post about this too =\. was pulling some leaves out from under my truck after my last 4wheeling excursion @ paragon and i accidentally pulled out the breather hose for the front differental. The first thing that was weird was that it wasnt very high up in the truck and second off it started to leak out grey fluid! Ive never changed gear fluid but i dont expect it to be grey... Im wondering if mud somehow got into my differental because i dont see how anything could leak out the breather hose unless the differental is filled to the top with something.

Probably have water in there, not mud. From what you are saying, it looks like when you pulled the breather hose off the front differential, it immediately started leaking. If that is correct, then yes it is way too high, probably due to water. Water will turn you oil gray. It should only come up to the bottom of the fill hole that is about the middle of the differential. Since the breather hose comes out the top, you have about twice as much fluid in there as you are supposed to have. You need to get it out as soon as possible or you will be getting a front differential rebuild. Bearings and water don't mix.

I guess ill drain it today.

I was under my truck looking @ the differental and there is one screw but im not sure if its a drain screw. Does any one know if the front differentals on a 96 explorer has a drain plug or do i have to remove the front cover? I cant imagine I have to remove the front cover because it looks like id have to take out the differental do gain access to the front.

No drain plug. What you were looking at was probably the fill plug. You have to either pop the cover to drain it or suck it out with a pump through the fill hole. Considering the fact that yours is probably full of water, I would do it the proper way by removing the cover and cleaning it up inside. I haven't done mine, but I think a wrench will get to the bolts. I'm pretty sure you don't have to remove the differential to drain it.

sounds like a real pain in the ass =\ i guess id better get working.

From what I have read on this site I have gathered that you will have a bit of trouble getting to the front diff. cover (I am planning to change my fluid too). If you have to get to the internals you may have to drop the entire front axle. (not 100% sure though)

What has been rocommended is a $12 fluid transfer pump.

Pull the fill plug and pump out all the old fluid then (on your case and possibly mine) fill it with cheap dino type diff fluid and possibly drive a bit then drain it again and refill with your final fluid. (synth).
Filling it twice first with standard cheapo stuff and run it a while to clean it up, and then use synth and leave it in.

This is just what I am planning on doing. I have not yet bought the stuff and it will vary on the price$$$..

Hope this helps.

Fish

In order to remove the cover and clean the mounting surface proporly you must drop the diffy out of the truck.....there is just no way around it.
I would not recommend using the pump since you got water in your diff. Let me know how long it took to drop the diff and everything. i need to do mine too, but don;t know if i should just send it in.

I would recommend Amsoil synthetic fluid...I got it in everything except my front diff so far and it is excellent.

Yeah i dunno if i want to remove the front differental either... i think i might just take it to a local 4wd drive and have them do it. Im gonna look in my chilton manual now and see whats involved in taking it out.

It doesn't look TOO bad.

1.You need to remove the spindle nuts (only designed for one torque sequence, you must get new ones.

2.Then pull CV axles (this will be the hardest part)

3.Disconnect front driveshaft

4.Unboly diffy from crossmember

Also for 95-96 models make sure to unplug the electrics!

I take it back removing the front axle doesnt seem THAT bad. Basically you have to disconnect the CVs from the spindle and then disconnect them from the axle. then to remove the front axle all you have to do is disconnect the front drive shaft and the 3 bolts that connect it to the frame. the worst part seems to be removing the driveshafts. Sheesh I just did my ball joints yesterday i wish i hadnt put my truck all back together!

I don't know about the rest of the stuff but the front driveshaft is a piece of cake to remove. I had to remove mine a while back to get my tranny pan out.

Robert did you have to disconnect the Halfshafts from the spindles?

I pulled out the fill plug and to my suprise nothing came out. The oil level is below the fill hole so i siphoned some out and it wasy grey. I cant tell if there is water in the oil it seems to me if there was water in the oil it would seperate out.

Transmission, lift, ball joints, front diff, bakes?, change r3ea diff fluid while we're at it, Namitey, what else do we have to do while we're under this beast?:exp:

Namitey - All I removed was my driveshaft when I changed my transmission fluid. No half shafts were involved.

This is an idea for all of you. I have a 91 X. There is no drain plug. And as many of you know it is a job to drain the fluid the right way. So what I did was drill a hole in my case, at the lowest point naturaly. Then got a pipe thread die and got a drain plug off a lawnmower (I used 3/8 hole) and pluged the hole. So now I can just raise the truck and drain the fluid. But to solve the problem of getting water in. I got a 5 foot section of rubber hose and hooked it to the axle vent and ran it into the engine compartment.


Just my two cents.


Eric

Originally posted by Robert
Namitey - All I removed was my driveshaft when I changed my transmission fluid. No half shafts were involved.
Why did you have to remove the driveshaft to change the tranny fluid?! i can drop my pan with out removing anything besides the pan bolts...

Because the SOHC has two pipes with a catalytic converter each. One runs 2" below the transmission, the other runs on the side of the transmission. Both pipes go into a single muffler. The only three ways to get the pan off is by removing the exhaust and converter under the transmission, removing the transmission support and jacking up the transmission or removing the driveshaft and sliding the pan to the center. A couple of my bolts on my exhaust very difficult to get any leverage on so I couldn't loosen them so I chose the jacking up the transmission method the first time. When it came time to replace the filter again, it was suggested to remove the driveshaft instead. It turned out being much easier to get the pan out.

Your OHV doesn't have the converter running under the transmission so yours is a lot easier to get to.

Originally posted by Robert
Because the SOHC has two pipes with a catalytic converter each. One runs 2" below the transmission, the other runs on the side of the transmission. Both pipes go into a single muffler. The only three ways to get the pan off is by removing the exhaust and converter under the transmission, removing the transmission support and jacking up the transmission or removing the driveshaft and sliding the pan to the center. A couple of my bolts on my exhaust very difficult to get any leverage on so I couldn't loosen them so I chose the jacking up the transmission method the first time. When it came time to replace the filter again, it was suggested to remove the driveshaft instead. It turned out being much easier to get the pan out.

Your OHV doesn't have the converter running under the transmission so yours is a lot easier to get to.

Ok...i learn something new every day :)

Robert I didnt read your reply right. I thought you said you took out the differental to get to your oil pan. Yeah I have to remove the driveshaft as well as the cv joints and such. Im gonna read over the manual now and then probably goto work on it.

Originally posted by Big E
This is an idea for all of you. I have a 91 X. There is no drain plug. And as many of you know it is a job to drain the fluid the right way. So what I did was drill a hole in my case, at the lowest point naturaly. Then got a pipe thread die and got a drain plug off a lawnmower (I used 3/8 hole) and pluged the hole. So now I can just raise the truck and drain the fluid. But to solve the problem of getting water in. I got a 5 foot section of rubber hose and hooked it to the axle vent and ran it into the engine compartment.


Just my two cents.


Eric

That sounds like a good idea, how did you initially drain the fluid? Did you just drill it while full and have a rag nearby? We might have to give this a shot.

To drain the fliud I just drilled a hole in the case. This is very messy!!! So a drain pan and a rag ready to catch the fluid. This works very well. Make sure when you do this you get a pipe tap not a regular tap.

Eric

I drained out all the differental fluid and took it to a local 4wd shop and asked them what they thought and they told me there is no water in it. They told me it was just old. So im happy i dont need to take the front of my truck apart :)