rear axle question. . .
 

this may be a rather obvious question, but humor me, im new to this stuff. . .

to change the rear axle or differential oil you drain it out, then put the new stuff in the plug on the backside of the differential housing, right? so, how do you know when to stop putting oil in? when is it full?

when it starts dumping out onto your garage floor

seems logical

theres two seperate plugs

ok before i go on
DOES ANYONE BUY A HAYNES OR CHILTENS ANYMORE?

anyway drain from the bottum plug,then tighten it up,
take out the top plug and try to have the car level,
then grab o hose or something to help fill it,
this will take a while the oil is very very thick,
when you can see it just getting reay to come out your good,
you can periodically check the level by sticking your pinky in the hole and if you can feel the oil your good.

i have a haynes, and that's what it said. stick your finger in to check level. it just seemed a little too simple.

ok fine here is the proper way,

to check level you will need

a pair of vise grips,
two pieces of 12" balsa wood strips,
8 rubber bands,
4 hands,
a magnifying glass,
a fine felt tip pen,
a ruler,
four jack stands,
two floor jacks,
three levels,
and a good pair of eyes,


ok here we go,
first take the pen and ruler and mark marks on the two pieces of wood,
mark 1/2"-1"
then use the 8 rubber bands to hold them together,
use 2 floor jacks to jack up the car while using 4 jack stands to support it,
use the three levels to check for plumb,
the magnifying glass will be used to double check the level,

now take all that shit and throw it in the trash with you and 2 more hands and
STICK YOUR DAMN PINKY IN THE HOLE!

funny shit..

I try to park my car facing downhill when I fill the diffy.

No matter what, take the fill plug out BEFORE removing the drain plug. That way, if the fill plug won't budge, you won't be stuck with a drained diff and no way to put lube back in.

Don't ovrtighten the plugs, either - they are tapered, and thread into glorified sheetmetal - you WILL wallow out the holes if you crank 'em down, eventually they will be big enough that plugs will not tighten at all.

What do I do with the vise grips though? :D

~T.J.

i seen that one commin,
the vise grips are to clamp your brake lines to insure the car doesnt roll.
that was the 2nd step,
sorry forgot to add it.

you forgot to start with a few beers.

Yeah, at least after a few beers everything would seem more comical! :)