Front diff fluid change

[janolsson]

This morning I had the disappointment of not sorting the parts for the tranny problem so I decided to change the fluid on the front diff as I have been meaning to do this.

A couple of weeks ago I got the gear oil and was going to do it but then I discovered there is no drain plug . I could have sworn last time i checked there was one but hey. Got on ebay and got a oil transfer pump for £20.50.

Now earlier in the week I tested the pump to make sure I could get the tranny fluid out to save getting a mercon shower when i drop the pan again. It worked for about 10 secs before the pump plunger failed. The seller wasn't very helpful so I dismantled it and found an oring had slipped out of a groove so I wedged it back and put a spot of vaseline on the tube and hey presto, all good.

So onto the job in hand.
The filler plug came out ok (use the square of a 3/8th drive) and pleasingly a small amount of fluid dribbled out, that is until i saw its state.
In went the tube and vacuum applied, out the fluid came.

It took about 20 mins to suck it out with regular pumping to keep the vacuum.
And check out the state of it

Because of the state of the fluid i'm gonna redo this in a couple of weeks or so to get as much of the gloop out. I bought 5 ltrs of the oil as i could get that cheaper than two 1Ltr bottles

Putting the new fluid in was not too easy as you can't get the bottle (a 1Ltr squeezy bottle with a spout) close enough. So i used a flexible spout that i aquired a while ago (free from a petrol station off an adblue container) that worked a treat

.
All buttoned up and working now hopefully flushing away ready to be done again.

Ta ta for now

 

[kevin p]

Well done mate. I did mine last month with an air powered brake bleeder. I used a hot air gun on the diff to make the oil flow better. Nice pics.

 

[ihpj]

Looks like a job well done Jan; I've been toying with the idea of doing the same on mine for sometime - just need to raise funds for the fluids and do both axles and transfer box at the same time. Your experience with the fluid that's come out is what I was debating on my previous thread about using cheaper fluids and changing fluid more often (like a flushing agent) to sift out all the muck and then chuck in expensive fluids once I'm happy it's muck free.

I can assure you there is no drain plug on the front diff. you got to use the fill plug - and I like your solution of using that spout thingy. I need to find something similar before I can tackle this job myself as I reckon I could get stuff out, but not in ;o)

I've got my half yearly oil/filter change scheduled for sometime this week.

 

[riobenson]

This is a job i want to do, and iam wondering if the small syrup pumps we use at work ( soft drinks industry) would pump the oil out and then clean oil back in.

 

[janolsson]

This is a job i want to do, and iam wondering if the small syrup pumps we use at work ( soft drinks industry) would pump the oil out and then clean oil back in.

I don't see why not, the consistancy would be about right. The only worry would be the oil and the seals! As you can get small 12v electric transfer pumps the principle is the same.