Tips for Changing Rear Differential Gasket

Video Transcript

"In this clip we're going to talk about the proper way to change your oil in your rear differential. In this step we're going to talk about the proper service procedure for prepping your differential case and cover for re-installation. What I have here is a razor blade and a set of vise grips. This works a whole heck of a lot better than just holding on to a razor blade and scraping your surfaces. What we're going to do is remove all the old gasket material and rust. Just like so and our scraping method you can see this stuff coming off of it. We got to clean it up so we get an extremely good sealing surface. The fluid level in here actually comes up to about here so the whole bottom portion has static fluid weight on it. And without a good clean sealing surface it will leak on you. This is my preferred service method just using a razor blade and vise grips. You can also, they make gasket scrapers, you can pick one up for about twenty dollars or various different kinds of straight bladed razor knives. You're not going to want to use a knife if you're holding it comes out like at an angle like a box cutter that's not going to work for you. You'll damage your sealing surface but if you got one with a blade that comes out flat you can scrape with that as well. You can also use a wire brush. It may take a little bit longer to clean up with a wire brush than with a blade but it'll work just the same. Once you have the surface scraped all around you can take your spray solvent, I use carbon choke cleaner, you can use brake clean or some other volatile solvent. You're going to spray around the sealing area and then wipe it clean with a rag. And there you go, that is the proper way to prep the surface of our differential case for reassembly. You're going to go ahead and repeat the same procedure for the cover portion. You're going to run your gasket scraper all along there, spray it off and wipe it down with solvent. "