Just did mine today . Transmission, Transfer case. and diffs. After fighting to get the plugs loose . I had to use a 18" breaker bar plus a 24" cheater pipe. (Bubba the gorilla must have tightened them.) I changed the crush washers and snugged them to what I thought was a common sense tightness.
Changing differential fluid
- Thread starter John Staton
- Start date
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first i would worry or not if your your using and installing ALL 100% FULLY Synthetic lubrication products or not ?
including your needed propeller shaft and tie rod end ZERK fittings applications.........
if you don't use ONLY and ALL Full Synthetics you will find out sooner rather then later that you made a poor choice ..
if anyone tells you this topic does not matter in anyway , don't consider there advise because they have not been correctly educated on 2023 lubrication technology fundamentals
lastly , absolutely , refer to and adhere to ALL the various Viscosity spec. in your owners manual , and the FSM chassis and body manuals too
install ALL new oem Magnetic Reassessed HEX feature service plugs in BOTH drain and fill locations , this IS a UPDATE that is light years ahead of your current dim old hex plugs with out magnets on them
then you will be set up for success .....
The most important advice given in this thread was mentioned in post #4. Be sure you can remove the fill plug before you dump the drain plug.
I would advise just a good snug torque on those, don't over do it. And make sure you have a good fitting socket on those skinny fill plug heads.
^^^^^^ THIS
- Thread starter
- #25
hope mine are not that hard to remove. I have a Milwaukee M18 1/2 high torque impact wrench. Figured that would probably bust anything loose. Won't be using it to tighten my new magnetic reassessed plugs I bought from Wits End for the Diffs. Valley Hybrid put these on my tranny and transfer case when I did the H55 upgrade a few years back.
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WAY OVERKILL!!!! Save that sucker for lug nuts.
I've never had a problem breaking loose a diif/t-case/trans plug. The wrench size is huge and the wrench handle long so plenty of leverage. Just be sure to snug them easy ...all that wrench size/length can lend to you over tightening. Stripping a plug hole is the last thing you want to happen. I guess if you have the recessed allen head plugs it may be different, just make sure you are using the right allen wrench.
please don't touch the power tools here on this job scope ....
if you take the easy path to the dark side , and cheat fait with that Milwaukie , i can promise you no amount of fully
synthetic fluid will save you when you cross that point of no return....
I bought a 6 point 24mm and ground down the first 1/8” or so on the front end to remove the taper. It fit a lot better on the thin bolt head. I read this somewhere on this site. Not sure who posted it but it was definitely worth the few minutes it took to do it. Completely eliminated the slippage for me. There’s some very good information and people on this site who are willing to help .
- Thread starter
- #29
Done....did use the impact to gently break them loose. The rear looked like grey fluid until the last of it came out and then it looked like a tan latte. The front was a frothy gray fluid with the consistency of whipped ice cream. I would say this was way overdue. The transmission and transfer were done when I got the H55 put in and had also swapped it again after a break in period so I probably could of skipped it but figured I might as well knock out all three jobs since I was down there. Easy peeze.
- Thread starter
- #30
I had more than one stripped hex bolts when I was changing diff fluid on my Polaris Ranger side by side. I came across this video and since I am a gadget guy I had to have one. It will fit my 60 and my sons 4Runner, but wont do me any good on the smaller hex bolts on the ranger. The company is out of Australia and has some pretty cool products, although their model specific stuff is only for new Landcruiser.
