I refreshened my rear diff. a while back - new cover, gasket and fluids. During the process, I snapped the head off of a bolt, and it has been leaking excruciatingly slow. the obvious fix is to re-thread it and bolt it together, but I dont have the time with a rediculous work schedule. My question is, Can a rear differential have too much oil? if i were to crawl under there and just pop the plug out and fill it with oil, what would happen? I obviously dont want to be driving around with half the required oil, but i am unsure if it is possible to overfill the diff.

Thanks!

 

You cannot over fill it as any additional fluid that you pour in through the fill port would run out. You should be pouring fluid in until it starts to flow back out the fill port. Too little could result in accellerated wear on the axle components. Too much (say if the front of the diff where higher than the back) would result in higher parasitic losses during operation.

 

Good, that is what I figured. It will be easier to keep refilling it than to try and fix it untill I get a day or two off work.

 

don't let it get too low....other wise you have to get your self a whole new rear end....not just a diff.

 

I hear you, it literally doesent even get the ground wet while sitting, but i wanna see how much it will take if i get a bottle of oil and start filling.

also, instead of buying a new front clip to fix all the body damage, I am looking at picking up a high mileage 96 jimmy of the same color with side body damage as a donor vehicle, which means I could store it and just use it to replace things as they break on the current dd. It sounds rediculous, but it will probably be cheaper in the long run.