10 Bolt Front Axle Gear Oil Change

[89Suburban]

Fluids - Check

 

[89Suburban]

Tools -Check

 

[89Suburban]

You can tell this is gonna be a pain in the ass with the tie-rod tube in the way.

 

[89Suburban]

1/2" socket for the 10 bolts to loosen the plate. And they were really tight as **** to break loose......

 

[89Suburban]

Figured before I take the cover off I should break the fill fitting loose. Takes a 11/16" wrench and a hammer to get that sucka to move....

 

[89Suburban]

Once I broke all the bolts and fill plug loose, I ran the bolts out the rest of the way with the Makita impact gun. Note the rust on the bolts. It felt like this front rear has never been opened until now.....

 

[89Suburban]

Used my scraper and a hammer to break the seal on the cover and start draining the fluid......

 

[89Suburban]

While the fluid was draining out of the rear, I decided to look around and found this........

Tomarrows write up will include a phukin water pump install.

 

[89Suburban]

Inspecting the rear.

Looks damn good for 180+ K miles!!!

 

[89Suburban]

Stupid dumb ass, drop the cover in the drain pan why don't you?

 

[89Suburban]

Notice there is 2 gaskets on this cover.

 

[89Suburban]

Took out the fill plug, cleaned it up nice, and scraped the old gaskets off the cover and cleaned it up. This was the most time consuming part of this project. Those gaskets were a real bitch.

 

[89Suburban]

Got the good 'ol reliable super blue RTV gasket maker and made my beads. Let it sit at least 10 to 15 minutes to skin over......

 

[89Suburban]

When you set the cover in place, be very carefull not to smudge the sealant off the cover mispacing it!!!

Have two of the bolts on stand by to thread in on the two top corners to hold it in place.


Hand thread all the bolts in a few turns and tighten down with a tool in a criss cross pattern at least 3 or 4 times, increasing the tourque on the bolts each time from light to heavy.....

 

[89Suburban]

Now the fun part, trying to squeeze at least 2 quarts of gear oil into a little hole, wht a phukin tie rod bar in the way.

Fill it up until the oil starts running out of the bottom of the fill hole and quickly replace the fill plug and tightent it fully.....