95.5 rear diff

Bought the truck with 250,000 miles on it. Previous owner had no service records. So i drained and refilled the transmission with master pro 75w/90 synthetic. Did the same thing with the rear diff, noticed the rear diff fluid looked liked rusted water. Also noticed the seal was leaking on the inside of the passenger brake. 3000 miles later noticed diff fluid on the outside of brake housing..checked fluid and it was rusted water looking again. Also when driving and shift to neitral to coast I feel dragging and when i put it back in to gear to throttle there is a noticeable thump. Any ideas of what to look at first?

 

Was the fluid really low when you checked both times? The thump could be unrelated. I had a similar thump and dragging sound and it was because the back brakes were seized on. Do you smell burning or hear any high pitched whining noises when your driving?

 

Also pics can be useful if you have them. The resident Tacoma doctors like to have them.

 

Sounds like rear axle seal on the passenger side is blown, you'll need to replace that, might as well do the bearings while you've got it apart. If you're seeing rust in the gear oil, there is probably some corrosion going on in the 3rd or axle housing, you may want to pop the 3rd out and see what it looks like in there.

 

It's hard to tell if it was low because the diff is angled for the lift. I have to park on a steap hill trying to get it level. When I pull the plug diff fluid seeps out . Tonight I forced a little more in it to see if it helps. Also last week I noticed something was definitely dragging and pulled into a gas station to find my passenger side brakes smoking, I adjusted the brakes and fixed that problem. The previous owner obviously didn't take care of the truck at all , I'm in the process of changing every bushing on the truck. I just did the steering rack bushings yesterday day and my steering wheel if off center now but I want to wait to get an alignment till I replace the controller arm and rear bushings in a day or two. Also the truck has 35" all terrain tires so there is a lot of noises going on which makes it hard to tell what it wrong. I drive 100 miles round trip daily to work all why and half the time my ass is eating the seat worrying a wheel bearing may be going out or something else.