My rear diff blew up. Advice

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77cruiser

77cruiser

10 Year 15 Year
Joined
Jun 23, 2006
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268
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1,870
Location
Charlotte North Carolina
I decided to crawl under my 62 the other day and was greeted by quite a site. The rear diff/driveshaft had spray painted my entire axle and both shocks with diff fluid. all coming out right where the driveshaft and rear diff meet. I took it to my guy who does a bunch of work on the cruiser at Goodyear thinking it was the output seal or something along those lines. He said the rear diff was shot and needed to be replaced or rebuilt and they didnt do that type of work. Or suggested i could get a used one. he has done work for me for 15 years so i know he wasnt making up stuff.

I have 4:88's and an ARB that I need to fix the seals on anyway. Could I just buy a 62's used 3rd member, put my set up in it and swap it in and be fine???

Probably going to be up against this myself or recruit some local help since i am typcially a 1 banana mechanic...
 
What did he tell you about it ?

In other words did he tell you the bearings are shot. Can you push up and down on your yoke ? 3rd members are pretty easy to set up on the table. You probably need new bearings and maybe new gears. If you can get it out and then bring it here i can set them up for you for nothing.
 
I think he was so overwhelmed by it he did not know exactly what had happened. Gears are brand new 4:88's and the arb is less than 2 years old. when I messed with the driveshaft it didnt feel like it has slop in it at all. I know the arb o ring blew and I have the seals for that already. I was just waiting for the time when I could do it
When I get it home tomorrow i can maybe take a pic or 2.

I think Kyle(72rockcruiser) has a parts 60 here in charlotte I could maybe snag the 3rd member from and we could hook up to re set it.

it wasnt making noises or acting like it was going to do anything bad then all of the sudden the fluid went everywhere while driving it one day.
 
I am going to call him and ask a few more questions tomorrow. I would like to know so I know how it all goes together.


I do have a 3rd member i snagged from Kyle to use that only has 100k on it.
 
If you get a chance go up under it and try to push up or pull down on the driveshaft where it bolts to the rear yoke . That will tell us / you if the bearings have started going bad. If you are going to do this i really recommend new bearings anyway. Also has it been making any noise whatsoever from the rear end. Tells us if the gears are starting to get a bad wear pattern in them.
 
Awesome! I will report back tomorrow. Thank you for lending the advice. I may not take the 3rd member out tomorrow because I wont have time but I will do a good check what I can see tomorrow.
 
It is very common for the diff to spew fluid when it gets pressurized to the point where gear oil is blown past a seal. I'd first check your breather and make sure it is not plugged.

If that's not the case, I'm with Darin - something had to cause a seal to fail. That might be worn bearings, bad diff setup.
 
To be honest with you, i would guess bad diff set up... My ARB blew its seals the first time I used it. you can hear the air blowing thru the diff breather. I almost wonder if the last time i was wheeling I accidentally cranked it on a 2 times and it was on a little bit before I realized it, if that didnt blow those seals...
 
I had a problem with a pinion seal on a 4Runner while it was under warranty. Same problem that it was slinging fluid under the truck and up the sides. Big mess... In my case, the dealer retorqued the pinion nut, replaced the seal, and I never had another issue with it over 10 years.

Since the 3rd was worked on previously, it also seems possible that whoever did it did not get the pinion crush sleeve / spacer or nut assembled properly. It's possible that it may only take replacing the pinion spacer and seal.
 
77cruiser said:
To be honest with you, i would guess bad diff set up... My ARB blew its seals the first time I used it. you can hear the air blowing thru the diff breather. I almost wonder if the last time i was wheeling I accidentally cranked it on a 2 times and it was on a little bit before I realized it, if that didnt blow those seals...
Click to expand...

Air lockers come from ARB already set up, they obviously just need to have the bearings pressed on, the ring gear bolted on, and the air supply connected. If the locker blew its internal seals, that is either an ARB issue w/ their QC, or whoever did the setup did a bad job. When I lived in NE Ohio, plenty of guys had the seals blow in the very cold weather - but manufacturing debris, shavings from the r&p bedding in could also cause this.

It really sounds like you need someone who not only knows diffs, but is capable with tearing down the ARB and rebuilding it. That'd be awesome if Darin could lend a hand!
 
I am going to the shop today and he is going to put it up on the lift to take a look and show me what he thinks it is. He says its not the pinion seal its "where it meets the differential". I will report back. Prob going to park the truck for a bit til I can fix it myself...
 
Pics from today

Decided to just start getting dirty. Got home and took off the rear diff cover, disconnected the driveshaft and snapped a few pics.

Gears look perfect, driveshaft has no play at all in it, Fluid was a little dirty but there was nothing in it at all. I rotated the wheel and inspected and its all pristine.

On another note i will post a pic. Anyone got any tips for resolving an issue where i bashed the diff drain plug on a rock and it partially welded itself shut? I beat on it with a chisel for a bit but wasnt making much headway...I think a dremmel tool might be too light duty.
BRING ON THE THOUGHTS...
IMG_2705.webp
IMG_2706.webp
IMG_2707.webp
 
A couple more shots...The fluid is coming from right behind the drive shaft flange
IMG_2708.webp
IMG_2709.webp
 
last one

Thanks for your patience and help...I am a novice mechanic at best so I am prob over thinking the problem

My finger is pointing to where the leak is coming from. It looks like the fluid is coming from behind it.
Diff leak pic.webp
 
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