Mangled rear diff drain plug. Best way to fix? (4 Viewers)

[kcjaz]

So I did this at Cruise Moab:

It’s weeping gear oil a bit but there is no way to get a socket on it. I think I’ll be able to dremel or somehow grind out material so I can get a socket on it. Is there a best practice for this? Also at some point the protective ring that is part of the diff body will need to be repaired. Is that just having some weld bead put on it then grinding to make it look pretty?

 

[CanadianRockyCruiser]

My first action would be to "die grind until a 24mm (I believe) socket fits". If that works, I'm not sure what, if anything, I would do about the protective ring. Might just paint it and live with it. You could weld a short pipe section to it, or build up weld and grind, but that's a ton of heat to put on the diff. I'd be concerned about burning the oil inside.

 

[76FJ40]

Just weld it to seal it and then just remove a couple of studs to drain.

 

[jfz80]

4” grinder with cutoff wheel to parallel all the flats. Large flat blade or small pry bar to open gaps. Proceed as normal.

Then either the weld build up (and fill your cuts) or pipe extension trick could work. Also, perhaps worth switching to Allen head plug at same time.

 

[TeCKis300]

My first action would be to "die grind until a 24mm (I believe) socket fits".

Mine was not as bad but basically did as you described with a pointed end burr.

 

[tbisaacs]

clearly signs of a good time!

You can cut it off and weld on a new ring using something like this

Toyota solid axle differential drain plug armor weld-on protective rin

The drain plugs on Toyota's solid axles take a beating when off-roaded heavily. Protect your plugs with the Cruiser Patch weld-on drain plug ring cut from 1/2" steel here in the USA. Includes: Cruiser Patch differential drain plug protector (1x) Fitment details: Fits all Toyota solid axle...

www.cruiserpatch.com

 

[kcjaz]

clearly signs of a good time!

You can cut it off and weld on a new ring using something like this

Toyota solid axle differential drain plug armor weld-on protective rin

The drain plugs on Toyota's solid axles take a beating when off-roaded heavily. Protect your plugs with the Cruiser Patch weld-on drain plug ring cut from 1/2" steel here in the USA. Includes: Cruiser Patch differential drain plug protector (1x) Fitment details: Fits all Toyota solid axle...

www.cruiserpatch.com

CM was a blast!

So when welding on a diff, should you drain the oil first or leave the oil, open the fill and weld with the oil in there? I would think that leaving the oil in might help with the heat dissipation but also don’t want it to ignite. I assume that either way, the best technique would be a series of short beads with cooling time in between?

 

[tbisaacs]

CM was a blast!

So when welding on a diff, should you drain the oil first or leave the oil, open the fill and weld with the oil in there? I would think that leaving the oil in might help with the heat dissipation but also don’t want it to ignite. I assume that either way, the best technique would be a series of short beads with cooling time in between?

I’m going to let a grown up who can weld chime in

 

[prharper]

Also interested on the repair ring and welding on diff.

FWIW - Scuffed up mine below and had to pry around but glad I upgraded the drain plug to hex version. (Think I sourced front and rears from Kaon). Threads on here re: that and Lexus version.

The shiny fluid in pic is Corrosion Free undercoating. Maybe it lubed up the rock slide some minimizing drag. lol

 

[cruiserpatch]

I developed these kits for these exact purposes:

OEM Toyota 10mm 'low profile' magnetic diff drain plug kits

Above: 200/300 series diff plug kit

Diff drain ring protector (replacement ring- bare mild steel)

above: diff drain protector ring (weld-on: common in Australia)

I used a dremel tool with a metal-cutting bit to shave out the mangled shards around the old plug.
I then installed the low-profile 10mm allen plug. Eventually it too began to take hits from rocks as I shaved off the protective ring again and again...

To be 100% honest, I have NOT installed the protective ring yet and continue to run this drain plug. I'm waiting until it gets bad enough that I absolutely need to decrease ground clearance in order to protect the plug. It's a trade-off IMO so to each their own...

To answer some of the welding questions- I've caught gear oil on fire before (oops) so I would suggest draining it beforehand and leaving it to drip for 24 hours or more. There will inevitably be some residue leftover but the bottom of our axle housings are thick enough that it shouldn't get hot enough to ignite the oil from the outside-in (better safe than sorry though). As @kcjaz suggested, short spurts and checking between rounds is a good idea. If anything burns it will be the paint. Make sure to remove enough of it around the ring before going to town on it.

 

[kcjaz]

Dremel did the trick. I was able to get enough of a socket on it to retorque the plug. I’ve ordered the 10mm hex plug from Cruiser Patch. I’ll clean up the protection ring a little once when I install the new plug and can get the truck on my lift.

 

[prharper]

I developed these kits for these exact purposes:

OEM Toyota 10mm 'low profile' magnetic diff drain plug kits

View attachment 3895168
Above: 200/300 series diff plug kit

Diff drain ring protector (replacement ring- bare mild steel)

View attachment 3895173
above: diff drain protector ring (weld-on: common in Australia)

View attachment 3895177View attachment 3895178
I used a dremel tool with a metal-cutting bit to shave out the mangled shards around the old plug.
I then installed the low-profile 10mm allen plug. Eventually it too began to take hits from rocks as I shaved off the protective ring again and again...

View attachment 3895180

To be 100% honest, I have NOT installed the protective ring yet and continue to run this drain plug. I'm waiting until it gets bad enough that I absolutely need to decrease ground clearance in order to protect the plug. It's a trade-off IMO so to each their own...

To answer some of the welding questions- I've caught gear oil on fire before (oops) so I would suggest draining it beforehand and leaving it to drip for 24 hours or more. There will inevitably be some residue leftover but the bottom of our axle housings are thick enough that it shouldn't get hot enough to ignite the oil from the outside-in (better safe than sorry though). As @kcjaz suggested, short spurts and checking between rounds is a good idea. If anything burns it will be the paint. Make sure to remove enough of it around the ring before going to town on it.

Got my ring today. The box felt heavier than expected. It's solid. Now need to figure out the who and how to best weld the ring on the diff.

 

[kcjaz]

Got my ring today. The box felt heavier than expected. It's solid. Now need to figure out the who and how to best weld the ring on the diff.
View attachment 3897016

Please post up on the install. I ordered a ring too. I think I’ll wait a bit to install it and just run the 10mm hex plug for a while.

 

[cruiserpatch]

Got my ring today. The box felt heavier than expected. It's solid. Now need to figure out the who and how to best weld the ring on the diff.
View attachment 3897016

I usually wind up grinding it a little bit on the lowest edge of the ring to maximize clearance…it’s cut with tight tolerances so a lot of the weld splatter might have to be ground off the housing as well (definitely requires some fab work but easier than welding one of those unnecessarily large diff butt protectors on)

 

[kcjaz]

I installed my new drain plug with the 10mm hex today. I noticed that the new drain plug (90341-18035) is 35mm in length vs. the original 24mm hex (90341-18040) head plug length of 30mm. The low profile 10mm hex one has a longer magnet. @cruiserpatch I assume the longer plug is OK as far as clearances go inside the diff. I rotated the wheels while still on the lift and all seems OK but I want to make sure I really have the correct plug for my 2015 200.

Edit: The new 10mm hex key fill plug is also a bit longer that the original plug. 20mm vs. 17mm.

 

[cruiserpatch]

I installed my new drain plug with the 10mm hex today. I noticed that the new drain plug (90341-18035) is 35mm in length vs. the original 24mm hex (90341-18040) head plug length of 30mm. The low profile 10mm hex one has a longer magnet. @cruiserpatch I assume the longer plug is OK as far as clearances go inside the diff. I rotated the wheels while still on the lift and all seems OK but I want to make sure I really have the correct plug for my 2015 200.

Edit: The new 10mm hex key fill plug is also a bit longer that the original plug. 20mm vs. 17mm.

The longer plugs collect more shavings and have cleared every diff in which I’ve installed them so far-

If you do ever run into issues with internal clearance reach out directly and I’ll get you taken care of

 

[2021 LC200]

Got my ring today. The box felt heavier than expected. It's solid. Now need to figure out the who and how to best weld the ring on the diff.
View attachment 3897016

Did you weld it on yet?

Any learnings?

Any pictures?

Thanks in advance

 

[linuxgod]

If you don’t want to weld on a ring, I’ve considered getting a piece of steel and bending it 90*, then drilling and bolting it to the diff studs at the bottom. Basically build a little skid plate. If you hit the diff it’ll hit the plate, not the plug. You’ll have to remove the plate to change the diff oil tho

 

[2021 LC200]

What about some set screws in the protection ring and no welding?

 

[kcjaz]

What about some set screws in the protection ring and no welding?

Maybe. Or maybe JBWeld.

The ID of the new ring is just slightly smaller than the OD of ORM ring. Or at least mine won’t slip over because it’s mangled. To install I’ll just gring down the OEM ring until the new one slips over it. I’d want to fill in some of what ground down which got me thinking of JB Weld.