Furball

Hi everyone, I'm Jeff and I have been a long time reader first time poster. This place is great and it is where I spend most of my time sluffing off at work, haha.

I have a quick Q if anyone is able to help me out.

the other day i moved my truck and saw a couple of oil stains on the ground. i crawled under and it looks like my tranny is leaking or something. the shaft that comes out of the tranny and connects to the axle is a little wet, and the whole underside of the truck is wet with oil directly over the axle joint. anyone know what is going on here? i am pretty mechanically inclined if you guys could please guide me in the right direction.

Thanks!

here are some pics...

Furball

more pics....

Furball

Couple more for pleasure.

BC_4runner

The wet stains on the underside of the body are from the u-joint throwing off excess grease. If you recently greased your u joints its probably from that.

If not the seal is probably on its way out.

Furball

no i haven't recently greased it. so basically my u-joint is going? how serious/how hard is it to replace. looks pretty simple looking at it.

thanks!

c0ugar69

could be leaking from the nut in the center of the flange, when i disconnected the driveline on mine a bunch of fluid just poured out that had puddled between there, I put some rtv between the two surfaces when i put it back together.

BC_4runner

both that seal and the u-joint are daed easy to replace. Lots of good write ups around. Check if the u-joint has play in it before you go replacing it

Furball

hmmm. you know that would make sense. the past couple of weeks like half the time when i shift i hear a very distinct metallic *clink* from that area.

Furball

Ok I looked at it again today cause I saw some more oil. I don't think it is the U-Joint cause it doesn't look like grease, it looks like oil. You know where the output shaft from the trans bolts to the u-joint/driveshaft? it seems to be pooling there, as it is wet with oil between the bolts, it looks like engine oil. is there some kind of gasket/seal between the output shaft and the driveshaft that went out that transmission oil could be leaking out of?

It is literally dripping slowly from where the two bolt together.

bugs1961

The transfer has a seal where the driveshaft flange goes in. That seal has probably failed and the flange may have a grove worn into it from the seal. I would remove the DS and flange using the factory service manual link in the sticky at the top. Replace the seal and check that the flange is smooth and clean where the seal rides. If it's grooved I'd replace it. Use some RTV on the threads of the output shaft where the flange nut goes so you don't get oil seeping out from the threads.

scope103

Slow down. Whenever anything leaks anywhere on a truck/car engine, it ends up at the "bottom." And looks like a main seal, or transfer case, etc. Gravity is not your friend.

Before I started wrenching anything, I'd get the rig so clean I could eat off of it. Use the sprayon engine degreaser, or get serious and spend a little bit of quality time with some paint thinner and a roll of paper towels. Then drive it around the block.

You MIGHT still end up replacing the seal in the transfer case, but my bet is that your leak is somewhere else, far away. Like (for all you know) the valve covers.

Good luck!