Hi guys, just went wheeling with my Jeep friends from school and my stock '89 yota sr5 pickup surprised a lot of people! The front and rear diff's got submerged underwater during the fun and probably the trans and transfer case. My question is, how do I tell if water got into the drivetrain parts? Will the gear oil look milky? I'll be traveling back home wednesday for Thanksgiving (about 150 miles) and I don't want to burn up the drivetrain. Also, do you guys recommend any other maintenance that should be done after offroading? Thanks!

 

If you haven't extended the breathers on your diffs you should change the fluid. Trans and transfer should be ok. You should lube the joints on your driveshaft, and check the front wheel bearings.

 

on the diffs take the plug out where you add the oil. put some on your fingers if it doesnt feel thick it probably needs changed. But Just to be safe I would change it anyway. Better safe then sorry

 

Thank you guys for the replies, greatly appreciated! I'll check the oil consistency in the diff's and look into making extensions.

 

No problem! Always tryin to help lol. what I can anyway

 

Here's a vid I found when I searched for extending the diff breathers. Really helpful

 

thata a good vid! im going to have to do that to mine too

 

Nice! That video shows some really clean options for making a breather.

 

check all your fluids not just diff ya never know what that water gets in when you hit it

 

If you went that deep you are gonna want to repack your front wheel bearings & hubs too..

 

Dropzone, is repacking the wheelbearings and hubs a difficult and time consuming job? My truck still has ADD.

 

difficult, no. Time consuming, yes. It'll probably take at least two to three hours your first time. Not a huge amount of time for working on a truck, but maybe more than you expect to just add some grease.

Be sure to get new star washers, grease seals, hub seals, and a 54mm socket too ($15 for the socket on Wabfab's site, I think).

 

Chances are you were due for swapping the diff oil anyhow (Very few rigs I get in for diff service/repair have oil that looks anywhere near like it should) but yeah it will be milky shortly after water exposure. Once it's been run down the road to get good and warm and burn the water off it'll usually be real dark. My boss's rig that spends a lot of time in front of a boat trailer almost always has gear oil that looks like used motor oil. That said I've had many rigs that saw lots of water time with the stock breathers... none have had diff trouble. I'd be in the poor house if I changed fluids every time I played in some water.

 

Haha! I hear ya man!
When I got the truck, there was one owner between the time my cousin owned it and myself (small world eh?) and when my cousin owned the truck he changed all the fluids in the drivetrain. The rear diff fluid was still red, I looked at the breather and it was caked with crud and wasn't uh........venting anymore. Cleaned up the vent and filled the rear diff up with new gear oil. The front diff was a different story and looked exactly as you described it: milky.
Kinda surprised that these rigs don't come stock with vents that run up to the frame/engine bay. They made the rest of the truck so well and kinda said, "that's good enough" when it came to the vents?

 

The vents are supposed to close themselves when you hit water. Works on paper, 20 years later... it doesn't work so much.

 

Change your Differential oil NOW!

Then do the Diff Breather Mod Now!.....Look it up! It's Very simple! Fuel Line hose and fittings up High!

I did mine....you might find it on the net.


......Carry On!....

 

Just did the rear axle as an experiment. I took the original toyota breather, pried off the metal cap and low and behold, there's a mushroom shaped end underneath that metal cap. Tossed the metal cap away and used 7/32'' vacuum hose (took some persuasion to get the tube on the mushroom end of the original breather but works well and holds tight) and a plastic fuel filter for the other end and boom! extended axle breather! Now I just have to do the front axle.

 

I have extended breathers front and rear now. But before I had them I found that the front diff never got water in it, but the rear always did. Im assuming becuase the front diff mostly never gets hot enough to create the negative pressure when you hit cold water. I drove about 10 miles up in the hills in deep snow and the front diff was still cold.
The rear is most always hot or warm from driving to the puddle .
Breather mod is a must though, front and rear. In fact toyota even started doing it on newer trucks like my 01 taco, has factory breather extensions.
Another cool thing about the extensions is that they dont have to be plumbed up to the top of the cb ant. to guarantee water wont get in. Diffs cool down pretty quick when submerged in deep water. Once the diff is cold it wont have negative pressure and wont suck water in anymore.

And if you do have water in your front wheel bearings then you need new seals also.