2nd Gen Front Differential Oil change the easy way

Hi all,

Ive been pulling info from this forum for over a year now but just finally joined to hopefully make a few lives easier.

I've read countless threads that claim that a hand oil pump is an absolute necessity for changing the front diff oil. From my experience, most of the hand pumps that you find at the auto-parts stores are pretty sh***y, leaky (waste of oil & rags) and an overall waste of 10 bucks.

Last week, I did my 30k mile service and found this method to be extremely easy with absolutely no wasted oil from a leaky pump.

Materials:

1) Gear oil for diff(s) ( I used Mobile 1 synthetic 75W90 as I have
the auto lsd rear vs. a locking rear)

2) 10mm allen head (I bought a 10mm allen socket to fit my 3/8
drive ratchet. allows more leverage and fits right on the torque
wrench when it comes time to tighten the plugs back up)

3) 3-4 feet of clear plastic tubing. 1/4" diameter should work fine

4) An assistant (preferably a lovely one with a skirt on so you
have something to look at while laying under your truck holding
the tube in the fill plug.) I didn't have that luxury with my
heavily bearded brother helping and my furry four legged sister
watching.

Pop the hood, Slide the tubing over the nipple of the oil bottle, feed the other end down through the drivers side of the engine bay and into the fill hole of the diff.
(why pump when gravity will do the work for you and make no mess)

Pretty self explanatory from here. You hold the tube in the fill hole, your helper holds the oil bottle upside down until it drains. We found that cutting a hole in the bottom of the first quart while its upside down will speed the process a lot. the second quart however, you just gotta wait since you don't want a hole in the bottom of a quart that you're only using half of. It wont hurt to squeeze either.

(1. Squeeze quart 2. turn upright 3. remove tube from quart 4.let air back in quart 5. reattach tube to quart 6. squeeze 7. repeat until oil barely drains from diff fill plug) these steps take like 3 seconds combined and speed entire process.

Thats pretty much it, torque the fill and drain plugs when complete. I think its
29 ft/lbs for both but don't quote me. (you might pick up some new copper crush washers, i didn't and they seem fine but i will next time. Theres no since in losing oil over two 50cent washers)

Note: this process can also be used for rear diff. and transfer case but can be performed without a helper and with only 8-12" of clear tubing necessary.
So much easier and cleaner than using a pump. just my opinion.

Hope this helps any of you putting off your front diff. oil change due to talk of it being difficult. Just do it, this method is painless and brainless, at 30k my front diff oil was 5 times as dirty as my rear diff. and at 1 year old, i've only used 4x4 for like 2 weeks total last winter and never had it in deep water or mud. I'll be doing diffs every 15k from now on. T-cas was clean as a whistle.
Sorry I was lazy and didn't take pics.

-Mack