Front Differential Breather

This morning I saw a couple of spots of oil in my garage, and after looking under my truck found no oil. I did, however, find that a breather tube is not connected. It is the smaller diameter hose that runs up into the driver's side engine compartment, and is clamped alongside the larger diameter breather hose. I am assuming the smaller one is front diff, and larger one is transmission (or transfer case?). The top part of the vent was also pushed out some on the hose. My questions are, what is the easiest way to get to the differential to reattach, where is the nipple on the differential, and is there a possibility of too much pressure in the diff that would cause the vent to try to pop out, then just pushed the hose off? The hose is the kind of short. On the pictures it is the first hose, and you can see the vent had been pushed out a little bit.
Thanks for any help.
Ron W.

 

I’d take a peek at the top of the front differential to determine where the hose disconnected from. There is likely nipple which the hose is barbed to or clamps to. It’s possible that the breather is stuck closed, so verify that you can blow low pressure compressed air through the breather valve. A stuck breather might be why the hose popped off the differential.

 

I will check that out, that valve could possibly be stuck. Any ideas of an easy way to access that?
Thanks,
Ron W.

 

If you have a piece of spare hose, remove the breather from the existing tube and connect it to the spare hose. Then blow low pressure compressed air through it.

 

Good idea, I will try that.

 

That hose on top is small and a bear to get back on. It connects via a bracket with a 10 or 12 mm bolt on top of the differential.

 

The one in your picture that is pushed out is for the front actuator vent, not the differential itself, there should be no oil in that line.

 

Then the larger one (behind it) would be for the differential? Hopefully it will be easier to put back on. Any idea where the nipple is for the hose?

 

correct. You’ll have to remove the skid plate to check on top of the differential itself

 

Okay, thanks for the help I really appreciate it. Now to go and fix it.