Rear diff leak- ujoints/driveshaft?

Hey I'm hoping someone can help me out. I have a 1998 Toyota Tacoma 3.4l 4x4 sr5. I had the rear diff rebuilt 6 months ago with parts from East coast gear supply as well as a new Toyota oem carrier bearing. I looked under my truck today and saw it was leaking gear oil quite a bit. My question is, is this due to bad ujoints/ out of balance driveshaft? I get a vibration at 65-70mph but I thought it was the front end, hence me replacing everything in the front end. Any feedback is appreciated as I'm ready to take it out to the desert and light it on fire. Help!

 

Do the simple first make sure the vent is not blocked by anything .

A blocked vent will force gear oil out the hotter the temperature the more gets pushed out

 

^^ Looks to me like the front seal of the differential is the culprit.

 

^

Looks to me like the front seal of the differential is the culprit...

 

I haven't checked the vent but will do so today. I'm pretty sure the seal is blown as well. Hey running man how would I fix the clocking on the driveshaft? Or be able to tell if that is what's going on ?

 

that driveshaft weight has evidence of a crunch going on, have that whole shaft checked for balance. it's been chooched for sure...driveshaft is banged up in the last pic

 

That's the pinion seal. Mine does it too. Common issue when you lift the rear and change the angle of the driveline. Supposedly it's a bitch to change out so I just live with it, it only 'weeps' and doesn't leak bad. I change my rear diff oil every ~20k and have never noticed it being low despite the weeping pinion seal.

 

Also kind of looks like you might have a leaky axle seal where the axle meets the wheel in one of the pics...it's in the background so hard to say for sure but looks like a gear oil stain. That can become a big problem if not fixed. The pinion seal I wouldn't worry about at least not right away, unless it's really leaking bad.

 

you need

likely a new propeller shaft as yours does have a dent
new u-joints (doing all this work may as well git er dun)
new pinion seal

 

On the bright side, your carrier bearing still looks good haha. At least the rubber around it does.

Of course that's probably the easiest of everything to change out

 

Thanks for the reply man, will a small ding on the prop shaft cause that much of a vibration?

 

maybe, could be a very tiny deflection in the entire section from whatever caused the ding

you have vibes, you have evidence of damage, you have leaks, what do you think. fix it all at once and be done

 

The gear oil on near the wheel is from that leak on the pinion seal. I believe it's just been slinging the oil around and getting it on the fuel tank/rear struts/ etc.

 

Rear had an e locker but the guy I bought it from took it off and put this manual lever system in. I have a lever next to my driver seat in the cab that I pull up to lock the rear and push down to unlock

 

I definitely recommend getting your driveshaft checked out. Last year I replaced the carrier bearing and the ujoints on the rear drive shaft of my tacoma. (except the double carden)

While doing these repairs I discovered that the rear section of my driveshaft had been installed backwards by the previous owner. I flipped it around when I was done and because I didn't know exactly how it was aligned prior I ended up putting it back together out of phase. This gave me some pretty wicked vibrations at 55+mph. I took it to a driveshaft shop an hour away and they charged me 100 bucks to balance my 2 piece driveshaft. They also squirted it with some fresh paint which was pretty cool of them.

With that dent on your driveshaft I would 100% take it to a driveshaft shop to check it for balance. Best of luck brother.