Offroad-Express

walked up to the truck after work today and noticed some fluid dripping down the inside of one of the rear tyres. Have had a look and it appears to be Diff oil leaking through the drum brake.

Is this likely to be an axle or diff seal of some sort? if so are these hard and / or expensive to replace? or expensive to get a mechanic to replace?


Also should this be fixed immediately and the truck left in the garage until it is or it will be ok to keep the diff topped up as i need to get to the west coast to catch a chopper into the hills in a couple of weeks and dont know if can get this fixed aswell if it is going to be an expensive fix

You should pull the brake drum off to see if it's leaking inside the drum as it most likely will be.

If it is then your shoes will be getting soaked in oil and this will wreck them eventually.

The oil seal ring on the axle housing is easy to replace however you might find once you pull the axle that the bearing on the axle is trashed and letting oil out through the bearing.

A bearing and seal kit is about $75-80, getting the bearing pressed on to the axle is about $40 or so. Removing the axle is pretty straight forward.

Make sure you can undo the fill plug before draining the oil out of the diff! If you want to keep the oil you can try jacking the axle up so the oil runs back to the centre housing however you will need to top it up.

My diff took about 2L last time I filled it. Supercheap have a nice screw on pump that you fit to a 4L pack of oil and you can pump it into the diff easily.

Matt.

sweet thanks for the info mate - might track down the parts and if i have a spare weekend give it a go myself but doesent sound like it would be too expensive to get a mechanic to just quickly do it either - last time i did repairs had the truck on axle stands for about three weeks while i replaced the cv's on and off as i had time

Sucks being in queenstown too - dont have access to the super cheap bargins just that one store we all know that rips you off every time you go there!!

Get the parts off trademe, I have seen them listed for $85.

Pulling the axle yourself shouldn't take much more than an hour or so. Remove the drum, remembering to release the handbrake to make it a bit easier

Undo the four bolts that secure the axle and brake backing plate. Disconnect the handbrake cable from the lever and disconnect the solid brake hose from the wheel cylinder. Be careful not to round the fitting.

You should be able to take the axle with backing plate and brake linings to any garage with a small press and get them to fit the bearing. Shouldn't take them more than half an hour or so.

I got the flush fitting drain and fill plugs from the toyota dealer at the same time, they are about $6 each and don't suffer from damage like the factory ones do.

It's likely that the other side isn't far away from needing replacement, the amount of effort involved isn't double to do both sides.

Matt.

A tip: If the axle doesn't want to come out, & you don't have a slide hammer, make sure the vehicle is well supported, attach a bit of chain to the wheel studs, attach the other end of the chain to something heavy (concrete block, 48" stilson, whatever), leave a little slack in the chain then give the heavy thing a pull, gently at first, it might not take much.

Cheers
Clint

just rang wilson bros in invercargill. i got front wheel berrings off them in chch and they were bloody cheap. $65 for a rear wheel berring kit for you and they can freight it up. give them a ring. was listed as a hilux kit but they should be the same (someone correct me if im wrong).

Pete

hey guys, do those flush drain plugs have a allen key hole in the middle of them like a really big grub screw?The ones mattman mentioned.

went around a few places here in queenstown to get quotes to just get it done by a mechanic as im not going to have time to fix it myself before i need to do a long trip with it 2 places were around $400 including all parts to do both sides of the axle and replacing all the drum brake shoes and wheel cylinders including labour the only place that invoices out the work is GWD Russels and they want $600 and that doesent include the replacement of the brake shoes and wheel cylinders - they reckon $280 just for the bearing and seals kits. What a bunch of rip off artists.

I might try and get the seal kits myself from where you said Petemcc and take them to the guy i usually get my work done from (he was cheapest anyway)

$400 to do both sides including brakes is a pretty good price if you ask me.

You are looking at around $160 for both axle bearings and seals, about $130 for shoes and cylinders, little bit of brake fluid, 2L of diff oil plus labour so that seems pretty reasonable to me.

I wouldn't bother shopping around getting the parts for that money, just pay your local guy for the complete job.

Matt.