I’m changing the fluid in my diffs, and the front is not easy. I got the cover off - barely, and I’m wondering if there’s a trick to getting it back on using RTV. I can see it was put on with RTV, and it doesn’t appear to be smeared so I hoping there’s an easy trick and I’m looking for some advice from anyone that’s done it.

 

Those top two bolts are a pain I hear ya. Put it back on from the bottom on an angle and you should get it on with minimal "smearage" lol. Don't worry getting some on the gears it won't hurt anything, just focus on putting enough to get a good seal.

 

Sounds like you’ve done this before.

There’s no way I’m going to get a torque wrench on those top suckers! I did end up using a number of different tools to get them off. The person who did them before me did have them on pretty tight.

Yeah, smearage is my main concern. I can’t tell how much will rub off when I do the twist to get it back in place. I figure I’ll do a number of twisty dry runs until I have it down, then put on the RTV and try it for real. I usually use the Permatex Ultra Black but it dries fast so I’m switching to the Permatex Gear Oil stuff as it says to “Finger tighten bolts until material begins to squeeze out around flange. Allow to dry for one hour then retighten 1/4 to 1/2 turn”, which seems a lot easier to do with the placement of the bolts.

So you got it on OK and it doesn’t leak? How much RTV did you put on the cover? Did you leave it in a bead or did you smooth it out before installing?

 

I did mine just before winter and I put on a bead on the edge of the cover just inside the bolt holes. I also used the black RTV that has "maximum oil resistance" but I found it a pain in the ***. I applied a decent size bead, maybe a bit smaller than the size of a pea all the way around, put in the bolts till it oozed out the sides, waited an hour and then hand tightened them.

Frig puttin a torque wrench on there, make the bolts snug and that'll be fine.

I did my rear too but I used a gasket for that and it was much simpler.

 

Thanks for sharing how yours went. I guess the seal has held up OK so far?

Well that sounds like the instructions for the Permatex Gear Oil stuff, which is the same stuff I’m going to use. It sounds easier then the Ultra Black to apply correctly, because the Ultra Black says to put it on and: “Assemble parts immediately. Do not squeeze out silicone by overtightening bolts. Re-torque will not be necessary. Silicone dries in 1 hour, and fully cures in 24 hours…”.

Yeah, not going to try to torque them down - can’t even if I wanted to. That’s why I wanted to go with the Permatex Gear Oil stuff as torquing isn’t necessary.

I’m going with the same gunk for the rear. At least it’s a lot easier to get to it!

 

Seal has held up great so far.

As for the rear... much simpler to work on. You can even drop the spare, but that makes it too easy. Takes the fun right out of the job.

 

OK, good to hear - thanks.

I think I'll do the rear first (with the spare in place) and work my up to the front.

 

I got the covers back on today. The front one was messy, but I think it will be OK. I'm giving it some time to cure before putting in the oil. It looks like even adding oil will be a pain.

The rear was a lot easier and much cleaner.

 

Glad to hear its going well.

The front I could never squeeze an entire bottle of oil in there at once.

I put maybe 800 ml (out of a 1L bottle) then used another 800 ml out of another bottle, then poured both bottles to make one, and I got the right amount.

Don't try to get an entire bottle in at one time, you'll go nuts

 

Thanks. Yeah, it's going, but it was a lot harder than I planned. If I ever want to do it again I'll probably just suck the oil out of the fill plug.

OK - I've had filling issues on other diffs because of the bad angle and had to do the pour one into another thing too.

The FSM says 1.88L (3.5 pints) in the front and 2.07L (3.3 pints) in the rear. Is that what you did?