to drain the oil in the rear diff, do I just loosen the nuts around the housing?
then form-a-gasket?

 

There should be two plugs, one high for filling and one low for draining. If you want to check your differential out for damage and whatnot, you should take the whole cover off though. Just pull all the bolts and pry it off gently with a flathead screwdriver.

 

i always completely remove my cover (after loosening the bolts to let it drain) and clean off the old RTV and any sludge. then put on new RTV and fill it up.

 

Yea, I've never seen a drain plug on a jeep rear end. I've seen them on a 9 inch, But I don't beleive jeep uses rear diff drain plugs.

 

yea I couldn't find one.... OK so I'll most definitely be taking the whole cover off... thanks a lot!

 

The book says to take out the bottom bolts first, place a pan under, then loosen the top bolts. Scrape away/clean al of it with a lint-free rag/ then apply a gasket/RTV. The book says to use a gasket.
Might want to take a poll on if you ned the gasket or not. Then re-fill.
Might want to take a poll on that too.
It seems there are alot of opinions on fluids/treatments.
Personally, I'd call a dealer to get the actual recommended fluid.
Have your FIN number handy, they might need it.
Good-Luck.

 

Thanks BillyBoy....

 

Process in a nut shell, place a pan under the diff, loosen all the bolts, instead of prying the cover (possibly marring the mating surfaces or bending the cover) tap it with a rubber mallet around the edges to break it free (try to get the bottom to open up first), drain fluid, remove bolts pull off cover.

Wipe any crud out of the diff housing, inspect gears, look for chips missing teeth ect....

Clean the mating surfaces of all gasket material, dirt, and oil. Clean the cover well (inside and out).

RTV (gasket maker) the cover on install, you dont need a gasket, Black or red RTV works just fine (pretty sure most people use black).

Put bolts back in, and tighten.

Fill the diff up with SAE 80W–90 for regular use and SAE 75W–140 SYNTHETIC for towing/ heavy use. (if you overfill a bit, dont worry, it will drain out the fill hole)

Move on to the other diff

 

ok cool that helps a TON!! thanks!

 

Use a lubelocker gasket instead of RTV and never have to scrape that stuff off again. Well worth the cost IMHO.

 

Not a problem!

 

lube locker eh? I will have to look into that. thanks