Transfer box oil seal / The case for extending your breathers

[Morr]

Well after dunking my Surf earlier this year, I now well and truly see the need for extending diff and other breathers. See here for how wet I got.

As I was servicing recently I noticed a leak from the forward output on the transfer box, set out to change it the other day and on draining the oil was shocked by the colour (creamy coffee) and thin viscosity of it, I must have sucked water in when wading in the Curragh. I know the diffs are OK as I changed the oil in them a few weeks back and they were fine, but this was not good looking.
Proceeded to change the seal, straightforward enough job and the Surf is once again motoring nicely with not a sign of a leak, but on removing the old seal the reason for its demise was quite evident. The metal core around which the rubber is moulded was pretty rusted, doubtless from the water in the oil, causing the seal to distort and leak. I'll also have to do another oil change on the box soon to be sure I've flushed all the contaminated oil out.

Lesson learned, fit extended breathers before wading!

[ro80rob]

Got a small slow leak myself from this point also. Is it a difficult job and do you need any other parts over and above the shaft seal and oil?

Cheers... Rob.

[Morr]

It was quite straightforward. Only the seal and oil required.
I used a genuine toyota seal (can't remember exactly but think it was reasonably priced), but you can also get them from milners and probably roughtrax.

[ro80rob]

cheers for that.

Any other tips?. How long does the job take (wifey likes an estimate)?

Cheers... Rob.

[Morr]

No tips in particular, I found it a straightforward job.
I can't recall if I needed to use a pullers to remove the drive flange, but following that the seal was easy enough to hook out, and the new one slid in nicely.

IIRC it took me around an hour and a half from getting the tools out to putting them away including refilling the TX box and lubing all the driveshafts whilst I was below

[andycook]

found cause of oil on our gravel driveway
leak around front transfer box seal - where front prop goes out.
checked oil level in transfer box, seems ok - i think i slightly overfilled it in the summer,

guess to do this job, you remove the front prop shaft
then somehow get the flange off ? any tips on this?

cheers
andrew