Rear end leaking

You can buy a weld on diff cover.

 

Trail Gear sells a weld on diff cover for our diffs iirc. To be used as added protection but in this case it would work to reinforce his rusted diff

 

It will be easier to repair the 3rd member than try to weld an entire cover over it.

I don't think we are all on the same page.

 

Maybe this will help.
https://youtu.be/CO8ROcJl3jY

 

I believe someone here has cut their cover out and welded this one in. Shoot I can't think of who it was but I remember a thread with this scenario

 

All it takes is some good paint and then keep a eye on things every spring to keep this from happening.

I gotta say clean things good look for the right epoxy which has gotten so much better in the last 20 years.

OP really does not want to weld I can understand. Besides welding would mean removing brake lines which would be even more work to the project replacing them and then you have the whole cascade effect

Because it is winter your going to have to warm things up unless you have a radiant heat garage.

Any vehicle you find down South is going to need major prep work before the first winter I got one from Texas and one from Alabama .

What is normal rust for in the North is the end of the World for those brave people just waiting to slide into the Ocean or so I was taught in school

 

You cut the diff cover off and weld a new one on.

 

FYI, what cutting off the diff cover is like. One of the pics you can see the old one in the background. It's super thin tin foil, and once it starts leaking, means the it's pretty much trashed.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-flying-silver-brick-build-and-fos-thread.540780/page-7

 

Yep! Thankyou for posting the other thread!

 

Well I checked the diff breather first and it was so caked it shit I couldn't move the cap but once I got it to wiggle it came off, looks like the previous owner clamped it back on with pliers. Is it an issue if there is no cap on the breather? I also cleaned the shit out of the rear diff with brake cleaner and with closer inspection it looks like he sprayed some kind of rhino liner on it so I'm assuming there was rust holes in it and that was his fix but I cleaned it best I could and drove it a little with no diff breather cap on and couldn't see where it had leaked more. I will check again a little later.

 

It will clog up with dirt and build pressure in a few days if that long

 

Bondo baby

 

Yeah you should keep some type of breather on it. Don't need any crap getting into the third member or axle housing. Might be easier and cheaper to just extend the breather with some vacuum hose, etc. Can search and find posts here in TW for extending the diff breather. It's easy to do. Run it up to someplace where it won't get all caked up with mud and salt and debris and shiz

 

Even if I'm on mostly pavement with this truck you think it'll still get caked? And if I didn't see anything leak out after I took that cap off and cleaned around it do you suppose it was just the breather being clogged?

 

Holy shit I can't wait to get rid of this truck
To go find a different one that I want to give love and care to.

 

don't need to extend it if you only drive on pavement but you do want to make sure it doesn't get clogged...if it gets clogged up the pressure inside the diff will cause the oil to force itself out through the axle seals (or in your case, the cracks in your diff housing).

 

Okay, so should I just clamp that cap back on with pliers like the previous pos did to get me by instead of running without one?

 

Yeah if that breather will still function correctly, definitely reuse it. But yeah something should be there. Especially in winter. Especially anytime.

 

I got a spare breather. If you want it, pm me your address.

 

sloppy winter roadspray getting kicked back up under there should probably be the only concern on caking the breather on mostly pavement