Okay today is a very bad day. I need some advice and prices. I took my truck in to get a whine in the truck looked at and have been informed that the transfer case vent was plugged and decided to pressurize the case forcing the fluid out and that my rear diff may or may not have ran out of fluid. The funny part is that there has been no leaks that i can see. So here is the questions. How much would a new diff and transfercase set me back? and how much time would it take to get it swapped out? Is this something that is possible to be done by myself or is a hoist pertty much required to do the work? I have a bad feeling that i am looking at the $2000-3000 range of bills if the shop does it.

 

Oh ya its a 1991 sr5 4x4 with the V6

 

Forced fluid out of the t-case? So it's toast, or just needs a new seal wherever it's been venting?

But first off...what truck? What year? 4cly? V6?

What's your mechanicing level? I rebuilt my t-case myself. Wasn't too hard. If I were you, I'd just find a used rear diff. I found one for the price of shipping ($50) on the Marlin Crawler forum. That's an even easier job than rebuilding the t-case.

I think a t-case rebuild locally would cost you in the $6-700 range, but I'm not positive. You could possibly also find a used one of those. Taking a t-case out & in is even easier than replacing a rear diff. I did mine myself...but I really should have had someone else there to help. No hoist needed. Just a regular jack and some "fillers" since it won't reach the tranny, or a good floor jack that will reach the tranny.

As for the rear diff, no help is needed, and as long as you have jackstands, you're all set.

Edit: you beat me to it on the year, model. Nice work

 

Buy a parts truck and go to swap'en...

 

Once you have the parts, you could easily do this all in one day. Especially if you've got a friend with you who has some idea of what's going on. I did my rear diff by myself in a couple hours, and if you don't count the time rebuilding the t-case, it took me about 4 hours to get it out and back in. With a friend, I could have cut that time in half.

 

first off, check and see what gears you got. look in the door jam and look at teh code under gear gear code. itll say somethin like G144 or G292 etc. then jsut type that in google and a link will pop up somewhere and you find out what gears yo got. you can find diff on the dirt cheap. 30-100 bucks if its 4.10. you said the mech said your diff may or may not be outta fluid? before you go buying a diff, jsut put you a coffee can under it and unscrew the drain plug. if fluid comes out your diff may be fine. check a junkyard fro the tcase

 

Before you run out and start looking for replacement parts, check this out for your self. As said above, pull the bottom plug on the diff and see how much fluid comes out of the diff, if little to none comes out then chances are that its shot. Also do the same thing on the transfer case, then make sure the vent is unplugged and then refill both with the proper fluids and drive around a while and see if everything is all right. It might save you some money if it was just low on fluid. Its worth a try.