front Differential oil change

[Bruce R Leech]

I am needing to change the Oil in my front Differential and I was wondering if any of you have any good tricks on how to get the old oil out?



Bruce

 

[mikeinri]

There are two basic ways, not aware of others:

1. Remove the diff cover, drain fluid, clean inside of diff, replace gasket.

2. Use a suction pump with a tube small enough to fit into the fill plug.

The first method is preferred, especially if you are unaware of the maintenance history of the vehicle.

Mike

 

[cgriffin_5139]

take it to jiffy lube

 

[Bruce R Leech]

cant take the cover off on the front. it has none. this is a 93 Ex 4X4

cant get tube all the way to the bottom draining.

Jiffy lube has reined the last car for me.


anything else?


Bruce

 

[mikeinri]

There's no cover? Hmmm, I have to admit I haven't looked that closely at mine. How in the world do they put it together or service the gears without a cover?

 

[Bruce R Leech]

the front cover is the swing arm or what would be the I beam on a 2 wheel drive it could be removed but you need to tear the whole front end off to do it .

I know about pumping it out. I have done many of them that way and it gets about 2/3eds of it out. the reason I started this thread was to find out what tricks other peple have figured out to make this job easier and more effective. it is to bad ford could not put a drain plug in these.

 

[gsmaclean]

I think what I would do if I wanted to get as much sludge and crap out as possible would be to put two hoses in the fill hole. One hose connected to a pump and a container to drain the old fluid, and one with a funnel on it. First pump out everything you can get, then while still pumping, pour some cheap solvent such as MMO or kerosene in. Continually pump out as much as possible. Once you have got it reasonably clean, fill with the proper gear oil, pump out, fill again, pump out, etc. until the solvent is gone or sufficiently diluted as to not harm the diff in normal operation.

 

[mikeinri]

I see what you mean. My 94 is the same. Yikes!

I have seen some posts about a NAPA drain plug kit that could be used for tranny pans, I wonder if you could add that to the front diff? Installing that probably involves removing the cover though...

Mike

 

[Fordmandan87]

the front diff is like a third member setup like on the 9'' Undo the drive shaft and the 10 bolts on the front and it comes out. if u want to just change the fluid then undo the drain plug on the front then use a siphon to drain the rest