Malleus
Far west of Siegen
You can remove the fill and drain plugs, in that order, with a hex wrench; if they're stuck, use a pipe or tube to increase the leverage. These wrenches are far cheaper than a hex drive on a socket, if they get bent. I only use the hex-insert sockets to install plugs, never to remove them; they bend and twist too easily. And you can't get a torque wrench on a hex wrench anyway. The plugs stick due to dielectric contamination; since they are steel and the housing is aluminum, they literally weld themselves in the hole. Heat will help.
The dust caps have no bearing (no pun intended) on the crap on the CV axle boots. They are there to protect the wheel bearings in the hubs. There is a seal at the rear of the hub and another at the rear of the spindle arm. You would have to lose both of them for anything to migrate from the outer end of the shaft to the CV boot. And even if you lost both, the contamination would probably goes outwards, not inwards.
The boots can leak grease, even though they appear to be intact. Clean them with mineral spirits. If the grease comes off, the boots are leaking. If it doesn't try kerosene. If it comes off then, it's the steering rack leaking. Mineral spirits dissolve grease but won't remove ATF, only kerosene will do that. You can use an alkali cleaner, which will remove both, but then you won't know what it was.
The flat ring on the end of the shaft is a snap ring. The circlip is a round wire and is on the other end of the CV axle and holds it in the differential housing. It's important that you use the correct terminology, otherwise, without annotated photos, no one is going to know what you're talking about.
I'd remove both front tires and disconnect the front propeller shaft and then try to turn the input flange on the differential by hand. If you use the transmission, you may break something that hasn't broken yet. Losing a pinion is bad; losing the entire differential drive assembly is expensive.
FWIW, in his video, Ryan says he found a deal on a new differential assembly that was cheaper than rebuilding the differential. He must have gotten a real deal, because the ring and pinion set is half the price of the new assembly. Unless he charges the same to set up a ring and pinion as he paid for it...
The dust caps have no bearing (no pun intended) on the crap on the CV axle boots. They are there to protect the wheel bearings in the hubs. There is a seal at the rear of the hub and another at the rear of the spindle arm. You would have to lose both of them for anything to migrate from the outer end of the shaft to the CV boot. And even if you lost both, the contamination would probably goes outwards, not inwards.
The boots can leak grease, even though they appear to be intact. Clean them with mineral spirits. If the grease comes off, the boots are leaking. If it doesn't try kerosene. If it comes off then, it's the steering rack leaking. Mineral spirits dissolve grease but won't remove ATF, only kerosene will do that. You can use an alkali cleaner, which will remove both, but then you won't know what it was.
The flat ring on the end of the shaft is a snap ring. The circlip is a round wire and is on the other end of the CV axle and holds it in the differential housing. It's important that you use the correct terminology, otherwise, without annotated photos, no one is going to know what you're talking about.
I'd remove both front tires and disconnect the front propeller shaft and then try to turn the input flange on the differential by hand. If you use the transmission, you may break something that hasn't broken yet. Losing a pinion is bad; losing the entire differential drive assembly is expensive.
FWIW, in his video, Ryan says he found a deal on a new differential assembly that was cheaper than rebuilding the differential. He must have gotten a real deal, because the ring and pinion set is half the price of the new assembly. Unless he charges the same to set up a ring and pinion as he paid for it...
