My only problem is I don't know if I have one of those available, so would a wire pad work? Or just some tough muscle grease with some braklean lol?

 

This is not a hard task! I do mine every two years in a parking lot.
-Buy two bottles of 80w90 Valvoline gear oil. One tube of friction modifier. One tube black, blue, or orange RTV.
-Remove bolts but leave top two in place but loose. Take a flat screwdriver and pry gently around the bottom until it breaks loose. Use your oil change pan! Let drain for a while (clean the cab or something.)
-Remove cover and inspect gears and clean the magnet. I use some fresh oil to wash all the junk out and my hand to clean the magnet. Scrape off the old RTV with knife or screwdriver or whatever. Clean with brake cleaner until shiny and dry. Apply new RTV in a nice bead and let sit a few minutes.
-Install cover but don't over tighten bolts! Let dry a half hour or so. Dump FM in first then the oil until it just comes to the bottom of the hole. Install rubber plug and done!

 

Okay, is it bad my magnet was not in the cap? I took it off, cleaner with a scraper and brakleen, cleaned them off good, the gasket didn't fit exactly right so I just decided to do RTV, I believe I did it right, I applied black RTV in a finger tip hin layer on the cap, applied it to the area around the axle as well where the two parts will meet, put it on and tightened down bolts to just where I couldn't turn the bolts after a slight snug, I tightened the bolts in a criss cross pattern, did I do it right?

 

Yep, there IS a specific torque value for those.... but, basically, run 'em in there, and a little bit tighter with a ratchet, and you should be golden. If it leaks, tighten them a bit more.

 

Okay, i'm kind of paranoid, if there is going to be a leak how long until it shows it's ugly head?

I'm scared I didn't put enough on the unit's and it will end up leaking, i've been told I should of globbed it on, and if none of it came out of the edges when it was put on, it's going to leak since that means it wont create a sealed gasket.

To reiterate what I did, I wasn't liberal, but I was thorough with black RTV application, on the cap I put the RTV in a layer enough to cover the entire unit in black, but not a thick black, maybe it was a little thicker than paper?

Then for the axle under the car, I took RTV on my finger and ran it all the way around the axle until all of the cleaned metal had the same layer of RTV on it, then I pushed both pieces together and torqued bolts down really tight.

But now i'm paranoid because my friend says that was not enough RTV. Should I worry?

 

go back with a tq wrench and if there is no sign of any leakage tq the bolts down to 35 ft/lb (as specified by a Haynes repair manual) in a criss-cross pattern like when you tightened em

 

If there was a leak would I of noticed it by now? I've driving it about 7 miles since changing the oil, and I don't have a torque wrench at my disposal sadly, but I made sure to tighten the bolts in a criss cross fashion, and i torqued them enough that I could only tighten them more if I put a lot of arm strength into them (two hands).

I will keep an eye under the truck and am putting a board under it tonight to watch for leaks or drips.

Again though, should a thin layer on both the cap and around the axle itself create a good seal?

 

somebody wiser correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pre sure it should, thats the way they came from the factory. I did the front on mine a week ago and but i used both a gasket and rtv, local oreillys had it in stock for $2 so why not?

 

I purchased a gasket also, it was an exact fit on my truck, but when lining it up no matter how I laid it down it sat uneven on the holes and partially covered about six of the 12 holes.

 

If it hasn't leaked by morning, it probably isn't going to. Sounds like you did everything right.