The Nissan Path

Its been beautiful here in Manitoba, exzpecting 80-85F today. I was at the rear of the truck yesterday, and smelt gear oil. I had a small leak at the diff last year, but it wasn't enough for me to bother fixing yet. I checked the fluid and the level was fine.

Did the same check yesterday, pulled the filler plug using a 10mm hex key. Usually I have enough diff fluid in there that it starts to drip out. This time when I broke the seal. I could hear a hiss, as though the diff was under pressure.

Does this mean my breather is plugged? Could explain why my seals are leaking.

Thoughts?

t

disallow wrote:Does this mean my breather is plugged? Could explain why my seals are leaking.

Thoughts?

t

makes sense

Confirmed. The breather tube is totally plugged. Taking it to the csrwash now to see if pressure washer will lossen up the dirt. Soaking it in the tub and using zep 45 on it didn't help. Bet its plugged solid at the 2 almost 90 degree bends.

Well the carwash idea didn't work. I guess worst case I can replace the tube with rubber hose...

OK so here's the update:

I couldn't unplug the breather tube. I suspect its loaded with rust and grime at the end near a 90 degree bend in the tube. There is another 90 in the tube, so it could also be plugged up there.

I had some extra air hose left over from my Airlift 1000 install a couple years ago. It fit right in to the hose coming out of the diff. So I lubed it up and inserted about 1.5", and put the hose clamp back on the joint. Zip tied the hose to the clips the tube used to be attached to the frame with, and voila! problem solved.

Anyone out there think I need to go further? IE is this the permanent fix, or should I still either unplug the tube or replace it?

Here are some pics:

https://plus.google.com/photos/10428720 ... 4060727601

should be OK as long as it doesn't get stuff in it to clog it again, or worse yet, lets water into the diff
a new original may be a safer way to go
hopefully now your leak (if it is caused by excessive pressure) will stop too

any other brilliant ideas to get this damned tube unclogged? I've had it soaking with intake cleaner overnight. Tried pressure washer, air hose, etc. No dice.

I had posted a link to G+ for the pics, but here are some labelled ones:

The offending part:



Rear diff map:

Terry,

That's a lot of rust.

Meh, it comes with the territory when living in the salt belt... I've seen alot worse!

What about some garden trimmer line, you get the stuff with multi-edges, maybe feed it in then connect to a cordless drill on low speed, act like a drain cleaner snake.
Do you not get your truck oiled?