Couple weeks ago, the rear seal went on my wifes 4runner (98, 6 cylinder). A friend of our - a professional mechanic replaced the seals and brakes and all was well. Within several days of getting it back, it developed a sporadic popping-cracking noise coming out of the rear. We took it to him at his house on a sunday and he verified it was nothing with the new brakes or seals, but since he didn't have the tools to get it up in the air he couldn't do any more without taking it to his shop. Several days later he was able to get it in and he said the sound is comming from the rear differential and he believes some pre-mature wear happened when the seal went due to low gear oil levels. To my knowledge, he did not remove the differential cover to inspect actual damage, But he recommends taking it to a shop which specializes in differentials. At this point I'm wondering what my options are. Would it be easier to replace the guts of the differential since something is obviously chewed up? Or replace the entire 3rd member with a used one? Or if worse comes to worse, the entire rear axle?
I'm going to assume we're going to have to open the rear diff to properly identify the source. Thanks!

 

Just pick up a used 3rd member at a local bone yard. Thats what I did when mine went.
Just drain the gear oil, unbolt the driveshaft, remove all of the bolts for the third, remove the bolts holding your axels, slide them out a little ways, and pull out the third member.

Installation is the reverse of disassembly.
Took me and a friend about 3 hours. easy-peasy.

 

are you in Neb? somebody posted a U-Pull-It yard near Omaha a few months back but I can't find the link, they might have a 3rd gen V6 there. I borrowed one from a guy in NC that was for a either a 1st or 2nd gen for a week while I rebuilt mine.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I'll post when I get confirmation of what the issue is.
Keisur - I'm in Denver

 

What seals did he replace? If he replaced a pinion seal it could have damaged the bearings in the diff .

 

oh. I figured "husker" you were in Neb. I was born in Fremont.

 

DarylD - He replaced the wheel seals on both sides.
Keisur - just a left over college nick name

 

A side note too, there is no diff cover to remove and inspect the diff. the only way to inspect is to pull the axles 4 inches out and then pull the drive shaft off the the third and pull the complete third out of the housing and check it out. if the mechanic didn't check the fluid level after he replaced the seals then I'd make the mechanical do a freebie fix job since you loose fluid when you pull the axles and it should be check once it's all back together, it's just the proper way to do it.