RXV, Change Your Gear Oil!

[Buggieman18]

There are several posts here that deal with how to do it and what oil, but I'd like to add a few things for the uninitiated and intimidated.

If your pan does not have a fill plug, drain whatever comes out thru the rubber plug, unscrew your pan, tap the edge of a putty spatula into the space, and the pan falls right off. Catch the remaining oil as it spills out. In my case, the oil was never changed, and it was black and stinky, and looked clumpy on the gears. Clean out the pan. I sprayed brake cleaner in the pan and up into the gear box and let the gunk drip out. Air dry. New silicone gasket-in-a-tube, screw pan back in place, let it dry.

Remove your driver side axle: Undo cotter pin, 15/16 socket for castle nut. Hub and washer easily slides off.

***Trick #1***The hardest part is to remove the snap ring, but it's hard only if you have the crappy interchangeable thingy from Harbor Freight with the spring in the middle that doesn't hold the prong assembly. I used a screw and nut to make it tight, then compressed the snap ring and fished it out with a screwdriver on the other side. The axle will pull right out easily--put the hub and castle nut a few turns back on the shaft to pull it out if you can't get it out by hand.

Funnel, 3 feet of vinyl tubing via axle tube into gear box, pour oil. I used a few pounds of compressed air to empty the tubing.

***Trick #2***. There is what appears to be a seal at the end of the axle tube that surrounds the axle shaft and keeps oil in the gear box. I used a fiberglass fish rod (the kind to fish wire thru walls, HF special) to guide the tubing thru the middle of the seal into the gear box and to ensure that it stays there. If the tubing does not go thru that hole, I think you'll get an axle tube full of oil. Guide it in with a flashlight down the tube.

When done, you'll easily leverage the axle shaft back thru that seal, and just push it all together, no need to jam it in. Put snap ring back on with your worthy tool. Nice and easy. Reassemble hub, nut, pin, wheel, done.

I pulled my axle 2 times because I short changed my 740 cc 70W90 Mobil 1 synthetic for posi (did I mention that I put my hub on backwards??) With a good snap ring pliers, it takes about 2 minutes to get the whole thing out, 2 minutes back in.

It runs so much better. So quiet. I owe it all to cgtech, redneck and vieradave.

[BobBoyce]

Very well explained

[dundeebarnbuggy]

Is THAT the way the company service manual says to change/add oil to the diff!!??

[Buggieman18]

Believe it or not, yes it does. There is no fill plug on the gear box above the oil line on the model year 2012, but I don't know it if applies to years prior or after. An engineering marvel!

[cgtech]

3 feet of tube is not necessary, and oil filled tube is fine as well, theyre all the same cavity, and there is no inner seal just the one at the outer end of the tube.

[nickdalzell1]

That's how we've been doing it for years on TXT as well as RXV

[Buggieman18]

Originally Posted by cgtech

3 feet of tube is not necessary, and oil filled tube is fine as well, theyre all the same cavity, and there is no inner seal just the one at the outer end of the tube.

Same cavity? Hmm. There is the breather valve there, but the axle shaft came out completely dry after a ride around the block, like it has never touched oil. The axle shaft was dry as well. I was unable to reconcile that. I'll have to consult the parts manual to see how it's put together.

[dundeebarnbuggy]

All that to save on 2, 1/4 or 3/8" pipe plugs.

[cgtech]

Originally Posted by Buggieman18

Same cavity? Hmm. There is the breather valve there, but the axle shaft came out completely dry after a ride around the block, like it has never touched oil. The axle shaft was dry as well. I was unable to reconcile that. I'll have to consult the parts manual to see how it's put together.

Well, the wheel bearing is a sealed unit, doesn't need any oil from the axle oil. So no oil "out there" isn't a big issue.

[Buggieman18]

Originally Posted by cgtech

Well, the wheel bearing is a sealed unit, doesn't need any oil from the axle oil. So no oil "out there" isn't a big issue.

Sure. Admittedly I've never pulled apart a gear box, and don't know what is guiding the axle shaft as it enters the gear box. This is why I hedged my sentence with "I think...tube full of oil", since it appeared that the axle tube and the gear box are two different spaces, and the vent appears to be in the axle tube space--the wrong place to vent the gear box if the spaces are separate.