Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Negative, older patrol Wagons, Safari's, as well as certain 80 series LC. I still don;t know why they couldn;t have put a flippen Locker in my bakkie, i mean, this thing is meant for farms and what not, if anything, this is the truck to have a locker in as stndard. aaaaarrrrgggggh!

On a good note, i found some Castrol LSX after many a phone call.... Did the happy dance,....chick wasn't impressed.

It blows my mind how one Midas can say they've never heard of it, but another 5 km away have it stocked on their shelf , WTF. Anyway, @ R285.00 for 5 Lt its 4x cheaper than agents and SOS. However,...i believe that the oil SOS were to supply me with is of much higher standard and cutting edge , state of the art kinda stuff.

What is the best way to "clean" my diff now?

1: put in LSX, drive, drain and replace?
2: Put in LSX and add small amount of degreaser , drive, drain and replace? (as suggested by many on the Auzzie forum)
3:Clean with paraffin as ross did (but how?)
4: other suggestions ?

At the moment i'm going with number 1, so i will have to purchase 2x 5lt containers of LSX. Eish.

Hello Russ

I think the "best" way is to clean with parrafin or degreaser, but to do this you will have to strip the diff.
Personally I would not even consider adding degreaser to my diff oil. Degreaser kills the oil, so you are effectively driving with a much poorer quality/thinner oil in your diff, and while this will probably clean the LSD, it will also wear the diff gears.

If you just try draining the oil, it may work after several applications but nt with only one. My feeling is that there are only two correct ways to do this. The hard way is to strip it down and clean it out, and the better way is to fit a diff lock?

Peter

Is the Filler plug on the rear diff a regular thread, or, reverse thread? I can;t get the flippen thing off, and i've tried everything,you name it. Its not coming off man, getting very frustrated now. Any suggestions?

Hi Russ
Don't know th pickup, but on the cars it is a normal taper thread, but some guys put loctite on as a sealer. how long is your spanner?

Very gently heating around the boss, but trying not to heat the actual plug might do the trick.

Cheers

I'm possitive mine is also regular tapered thread. damn man. I'm not winning here and i don;t have anything to heat it with. I've even turned off the square metal head of the ratchet spanner, its all twisted like a screw! Looked for a longer pipe in with to add leverage, but couldn't find one. Also tried using a bottle jack from the floor up and against the arm of the spanner, no luck and started to pull the square inside the plug out of shape. very worried now as i have drained the diff, so can;t even go anywhere. . Gonna go back to the drawing board and come up with a plan.....

Russ, roll the car on it's roof and fill it through the drain plug? Sorry, couldn't help myself there.

Try putting a 100mm extension in the hole of the plug, then wack it a coupla good shots with the biggest hammer you've got. And good luck.

bwhahaha,

I got it off, ...but not by either method suggested by peter! although turn it upside down was starting to sound like a good option!

Threw away the cheap ratchet and brought out my pride and joy imported ratchet set, head is made from low tungsten steel. Gave it one last go. I never new you could burst a poep-string more than once in a day, well,...i burst about 6 in the last 2 hours. Gonna need a rub-down from the Mrs a bit later!

Ordered two new ones at 100 bucks a pop. never letting another oke touch my plug. (no jokes please)

Thanks for the support guys, specially Peter.

Russ

Russ, I am just glad you got it out.

zgeeezzz - that 'Trol is like a dog ... a good dog .. a STAFFIE .. just does not let go [ek meen, as hy sit dan SIT hy?]

Russ - why dont you add a couple of those 'plates [shims? clutches ] whatchamacallit ? That will make the LS more aggro and in most places even work better than diff lock [specially in heavy sand]

Must admit - Between Mr Connan and that man Frans - we can just about achievbe anything on this forum -DANKIE JULLE TWEE

Guy, to be honest, i am terrified of anyone touching my diffs. All you need is the wrong torque value here or there when reassembling, and you end up with a buggered diff, i just can;t risk loosing a 3 year old diff in perfect working order from the factory. I've had doff issues before on my SFA hilux, and it was terrible. could never get it back to that factory feel, and to be honest, i just don;t know who would be capable of working on Patrol diffs.

What my thinking was, is that if i can repeat this process a few times and get this rear LSD working well, then perhaps i can put an ARB in the front at some stage. Although its very costly. I'm gonna give my rear diff a hundred or so km then drain and repeat, in the hopes of flushing out the old regular oil and seeing some change in how it behaves.

Peter , you are right about stripping it to clean, but, as mentioned above, i go weak in the knees when i think about incompetent folk messing around inside my diffs and axles.

NOTE: When i drained the oil, i didn't get a full 5 Lt out, although it was filled to the plug,......yet when i put new oil in, i got a full 5lt in,..... x-Files stuff this!.... How much diff oil is pushed to the half shafts and sits there not able to drain ? a Litre, maybe 2 ?