98-11 front axle drain

[Diesel_brad]

Has anyone drilled a drain hole on the bottom of the front diff to drain it?
Then tap and plug it?

best location to do so?

 

[Denisefwd93]

Not so much that I know what I'm talking about but as far where to drill and tap. But you could just take a standard malleable pipe coupling cut it in half and weld it to the place where you want, then you could use a standard pipe plug

 

[07nhbpsi]

Has anyone drilled a drain hole on the bottom of the front diff to drain it?
Then tap and plug it?

best location to do so?

I considered doing this on 10’ Took it to a buddy of mine, longtime mechanic was ready to drill it, then had advised we not do it without pulling off front cover 1st..........what I did do though is used a vacuum pump and measured the amount of fluid I pulled out and compared it to the fill spec..........What I can tell u is I managed to suck it all out... So given this I’d say just use this method.... the only other thing I could do is pull the mount on axle to move it back and pull cover, to get it sparkling clean inside.....

 

[Captain Ledd]

You could weld on a bung of sorts to the front beam, I think they make replacement ones for oil pans.

You could probably spot face the bottom of the housing (housing removed), and drill/tap for a replacement oil pan plug.

I have also heard of drilling/grinding out the end of the lowest "cover" bolt hole, so you just unbolt the bottom bolt and it will drain.

 

[Curious Hound]

You could weld on a bung of sorts to the front beam, I think they make replacement ones for oil pans.

I did that on mine while it was apart for gear change. I would hesitate Todo it without being able to clean the metal shaving out after drilling. Some people will recommend putting grease on your drill bit and tap if drilling and tapping something like that in place. The theory is that the grease should be sticky enough to capture the filings. In my book, that's a last ditch emergency procedure. But I'm paranoid about keeping garbage out of gearboxes and bearings.

This message composed solely of recycled electrons. Go green!

 

[Captain Ledd]

Just now noticed this was "98-"11. Though I guess they'd still apply. Easiest would be to just take the front cover off and weld on a replacement oil pan drain bung for draining and one higher for filling if the normal one is more difficult to get to.

 

[Diesel_brad]

Does anyone happen to have a picture of the front diff with the cover off?

I dont want to blindly drill into the housing and into a gusset