Rocklobster

Hey just had a few questions, I have read about people checking to see if their breathers are clogged up so I decided to check mine. It was caked with grease or some other junk, so I attempted to clean it up alittle bit. While cleaning the grease and buildup from aroudn the breather it began to turn? So I figured it was going to just screw out so I tried to unscrew it out of the differential housing, but with now luck. So is it threaded and meant to come out? It seems like maybe it just pops up and can be turned to relieve pressure but I am not sure, also a small amount of fluid did show up when I was messing with it (pulling it up and down/turning it). Let me know what is the deal with this little sucker. Thanks.

Rocklobster

Ok after further inspection it looks to be just a cap that I am "spinning". Does this just pop off and reveal the threaded piece?

seaflea

the entire unit is designed to come out. But the part you were messing with just turns. it is spring loaded and has a small rubber stopper inside that is supposed to shut on sudden pressure changes (IE cold water crossings) keeping water out and the diff fluids in. Thats the way its designed, but It doesnt really work that well; as you found out it gets gunked up and cannot perform its job. If you pry the little sucker off you will see what I am talking about. itis alo there to relieve pressure that builds up in there. If it gets so clogged up that it cant breath, you will start getting leaks and have to replace axle seals and all.
A lot of people choose to move them to a better location to keep water out of thier diffs during deep crossings.
Hope this helps!

jimbo74

its a really crappy design, and even jsut pulling off the cap is not a good idea, it wont go back on and then you just have a straight hole in the housing.... probably wnat to add extended breather to it... look on roger brown's site www.4crawler.com he has a good writeup there.... i recently extended mine

LittleRedToyota

no...the piece you are talking about is a sort of "jiggle valve" that is not really meant to be separated from the breather. (its purpose is to let air go in an out of the differential while preventing mud and gunk from going in.)

below that cap...right up against the differential housing...there is a nut shaped portion of the breather that you can put a wrench on and take the entire breather valve (including the cap) out of the housing. make sure you clean up the valve and housing very well first, though, so you don't get grime falling into your diff when you pull the breather out.

many people extend their differential breathers to prevent them from getting all gunked up.

4crawler has a write up at:

http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri...html#Breathers

even if you don't want to extend it, i think he has some pics on there that will give you an idea of where to put the wrench to get it out...

seaflea

thats what I was trying to say!!

Rocklobster

I see that he added some kind of filter on the end of his. Is that really necessary or can i just run a piece of 1/4 inch rubber hose up and mount it under my bed?

LittleRedToyota

its a good idea to put some kind of filter on the end...you can get lawn mower fuel filters for a couple of bucks that work well.

the reason to put it on is that the diff will generate heat which will eminate from the end of the hose and attrack spiders, insects, etc. they will crawl into the tube in search of warmth which could clog the tube or turn your diff into an insect graveyard (and gunk up the gears).

jimbo74

its best to mount something up there... you dont want dirt partibles or bugs crawling down the tube..... i just put on a fuel filter... it was like $3

LittleRedToyota

yeah, i started to reply...then got distracted for a minute...then finished my reply and posted it.

but, by then, you and a few other people had already answered the question.

man, you gotta be quick around here...

seaflea

yeah you do! I was trying to make sense of my post and then you posted up what I was trying to say. ha-ha

Rocklobster

This place is great, very quick and good responses. Looks like I have alittle bit of a project after work! Crawling through water is to much fun, last thing I want is something to happen b/c I wanna play in the creek!

LittleRedToyota

couple quick tips since you are going to be doing this mod...

make sure you keep the hose in the rear well away from the exhaust...and, try to make sure the hose does not have an places where it forms a U (with the middle part being lower than the two end parts)...the problem is that it can act like the trap on a sink...

you get some diff fluid vapor coming out of the diff and into the hose...then it condenses in the cooler hose and collects at the bottom of the U. this then prevents air from moving all the way through the hose and effectively plugs the differential breather. (the same way the water in a sink trap prevents sewer gases from coming up through the drain in your sink.)

in other words, try to make it so the hose is constantly rising (even if just a very little bit) from the time it leaves the diff breather until it is terminated (the end can hang down, but only the end).

so, it should look roughly like this:


...../
.../
./

or even

..___ /
./
/

but not like this:

.. __..... /
./....\__/
/

the little dip in the middle is the problem.

(gotta love ASCII art...hehe...EDIT...er, the spaces get taken out when posted, so it didn't turn out so well...so i replaced the spaces with dots...oh well, hopefully you can get what i mean.)

also i recommend running the rear hose up to the taillight housing like roger did...i copied him and it works very well.

good luck!

Dezertoyota

jimbo74

yeah that breather is pretty useless... since mine was coming off i looked into it, ok it fell apart in my hands... there is a little spring holding a little piece of rubber in the cap against the cap.... pretty primitive, and made my truck blow diff fluid out the pinion seal..... since its been replaced with a breather, no more diff fluid has spit out the pinion seal