I have a 85 (solid front axle) pickup. After I leave it parked for a few hours I notice something has leaked down on the front tires. What chould this be???

 

whats it smell like

 

brake fluid, power steering fluid, coolant, oil...

should probably be a little more descriptive of what it is (color, and like he said, smell)

and try to trace where it is coming from.

 

probably the axle seals are leaking, but with no more info its hard to say.

 

Inside front then it is more than likely the front axle seals and you have some nice green pea soup in your knuckles. Check the bottom nuts on the knuckle bottom plates and if they are damp with oil you probably need to do a front axle knuckle service rebuild kit.
If it is on the outside then you need to shoot the dog pissing on your tires.

 

I knew it wasn't any of the common fluids that you mentioned (brake fluid, power steering fluid, coolant, oil...). I'm pretty sure that it is the axle. I was told by a friend that if anything on the axle was bad you had to replace the whole axle. That is why I asked.

 

Your friend's advice to replace the entire axle if something was bad could prove very expensive, order the front knuckle service kit and rebuild the front end. You will learn a lot doing it. It is something that is on the agenda for my '81. Leaking Toyota SFA's from around the knuckle ball is common as the felt and seals wears with age. Do a quick search and you will find a link on how to do it.

edit: link on rebuilding axle: http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri...eRebuild.shtml
at the bottom of the page this link sends you to are 4 or 5 more links that are also very helpful...

this link is to a Toyota Factory Service manual for 85+ trucks, it is about a 57MB down load, but worth it...
http://www.ncttora.com/fsm/index.html