Front Diff Seal Leak, Greenville, SC

Hey all,

I got back late last night driving back from Alabama to Greenville, SC to the smell of burning gear oil. Crawled under the truck and it's leaking from the passenger side front diff axle seal.

I'd do the job myself but I don't have a floor jack, jackstands, and all the tools I have back home at my parents house at my new apartment here. I have a pretty decent amount of regular tools with me, but not that kind of stuff. I'm still pretty new to the area here, I just moved here in January.

The seal is only $26 at the Toyota dealer, but they want $555 to change it after labor for 4 hours of labor... I'd much rather do it myself just so I know it's done right with the locktite on the Lower Ball Joint Bolts and their specific torque setting, as well as the locktite and torqueing of the SpiderTrax spacers I have just for safety reasons.

Does anyone know a really good independent mechanic in the area that I could trust to do this at a reasonable rate, or maybe someone is willing to possibly lend a helping hand to a fellow Toyota enthusiast?

The job itself doesn't look terribly hard, most say they can pull a CV in a short amount of time, I've just never pulled a CV before myself, but I've done the timing belt/water pump, rear axle seals, inner and outer tie rod ends, lower ball joints, suspension swaps, etc.

Thanks for any assistance or advice anyone has!

 

There are a few guys up in your area that mod their stuff. check out the SCBS thread and they may have a mod day coming up soon and they may be able to help out.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/s-c-bs-and-gossip-thread.411211/page-613#post-12031838

you just have to wade through some BS to get your answer!

 

There's a couple pictures of the leak and one below of my baby.

 

Thanks JP, I'll head over there and post a link to this thread and see if anyone has any ideas.

 

Nice truck BTW!