What can i do to drain my front diff?

[samx227]

dana 35, 1990 ford ranger 4x4.
so after sinking my truck in the river and going muddin all the time and what not i have been very bad about changing my diff fluids! lol. it makes it pretty hard when there are no drain plugs!




i am thinking of tapping a hole into the front and rear diffs, and putting a magnetic drain plug in them. i see a lot of people do this! and with fluid like this pictured below, i think i may have to pull the pumpkin, which sucks because i dont think i am mechanically inclined enough to pull off the job but i guess we will see!


when my hubs are locked it does start to make a squealing/squeaking noise and when its in 4x4 it does the same and i can feel vibration in the floorboard as well. one of the techs at my work seem to think it is just the locking hubs and that they are trash (mile markers) not sure how old they are. anyway he still warned me i may be looking at having to rebuild the front diff. can anyone reccomend a good rebuild kit for these and maybe a good thread on doing so? thanks in advance

 

[Captain Ledd]

That's some nasty looking sludge, you might be able to get away with pulling the diff and just cleaning it out real good, depends on how longs it's been sitting or used with that junk in there.

If you decide against pulling it, another solution is to drill the bottom of the housing.

Get a regular automotive oil drain plug with a rubber grommet/gasket built in or that has a large flange and use a separate neoprene gasket.

Drill the hole from the bottom with some grease smeared on the end, you don't need the grease until it gets close bit it'll help keep shavings out of the diff.

Tap said hole to fit the drain plug, again, smear the tap with grease.

If you do pull he housing, don't worry about the grease, might be a little easier to put a little flat spot around the hole with it off though too. Just for that much better sealing,but it's not necessary.

 

[wizkid00104]

I think pulling the front pumpkin is worth it. It looks as though a dog has used your front diff as a port-o-john...

I was going to suggest using a hand pump to siphon the old fluid out, but not after seeing that.

There is more than enough knowledge here to get you through removing the pumpkin though. If this truck is your DD, I'd even suggest picking up a spare pumpkin at the junkyard with matching gears so it things are too bad, you can just swap them if your original is shot. Make sure you figure out if you have the Dana 28/35 hybrid or the true Dana 35.

 

[samx227]

Thanks for the replies guys!! It is my DD by choice lol but I do have another vehicle. Which I'm currently driving because I suck at changing steel brake lines and the ranger doesn't have brakes right now lol. I will continue to search for info as how to properply remove the front pumpkin. Hopfully all goes well. Definitely going to do the drain plug while its out. Thanks again everyone. Will update as I do things! !

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk