Rear Differential Oil Leak on ‘03

Finally had time to take a good look at his leak, which has gotten much worse after cleaning up the housing. But at least now I can see where it is. I ordered the cheap Dorman weld on cover, mainly because I really don't need anything stronger, and who knows how much longer this truck will last. In the mean time, I will try some of the JB Weld and see if that will hold until the bigger repair can be made.

I started looking at newer Tacomas, but don't really want to spend that much right now. I haven't given up on the idea of a frame swap for this one, and I may start another tread on that topic.

 

Got the Dorman dif cover, and I’m surprised by the quality. Much thicker and better made than I thought it would be. Used the J-B weld on the old one and it came out quite well. Only problem is I didn’t get all the leaks covered, so did round two today, and will check it out tomorrow.

 

Holy JB Weld!!

 

It's pretty ugly, but if it buys me some time, great!

The missed leaks were above the oil level, so they did not show when parked. I think I got them though. Will know later.

EDIT: JB Weld - miracle in a tube!

 

@ghs57 I JUST dealt with this.. mine was rusting through (PA truck) but was holding fluid. I grabbed the Dorman and the Barnes and decided to use the Barnes one as it is WAY thicker. It took me 3 hours to pull the axle and 3rd out (first time doing it). Then about 2 hours for my local fabricator to cut the cover off and weld the new one on.

At some point though, I will be looking at an axle. Luckily the 3rd gen 4runners use a similar one and we can just weld the perches on and call it done.

The JB weld has been done before by plenty of people on the forum. It holds up for roughly 6 months or so.

Best of luck!

 

Dreading removing the rear axle. I’ve had it out before when I swapped the suspension, but that was years ago and everything has rusted beyond recognition since.

 

I had a friend who did it with the axle in the truck and he cleaned the housing out after and changed the fluid after 100 miles and has been fine for 10k miles.

 

I'd definitely do it that way. Too much can go wrong on a rust bucket like this. Touch as little as possible.

Jack it up, cut it off, clean it as well as you can and make sure you have a clean magnet.

 

100% agree on something this rusty.

I have a pic of how much metal came out on my phone somewhere. Let me see if I can dig it up. it wasn't as much as i was expecting and I know he didn't clean it out before cutting.

 

I found it. This was removed with a Qtip. He has the valley style magnet.

 

Has anyone tried using West System marine epoxy resin and fiberglass sheet for this problem?

 

Assuming the rust isn't as bad as the first guys photo... You could clean up the metal, drain the diff (the leaking oil would wreck any chance of proper adhesion), and try a layup. I would leave some texture on the metal so the epoxy might have something to adhere to.. But in general, it's probably a waste of time- The heat cycling would break the epoxy down pretty quickly if it stuck at all in the first place. Fix metal with metal.