Front Differential Plate Removal

[Kaleb.Speegle]

Hi, does anyone here know how I can remove the plate off of the front differential of my 2002 Jeep Liberty. There is another plate over the diff. cover that apprehends me from removing the diff. cover, its right in the way. I cant remove the plate in front of the diff. because the bolt holding it up will hit the control arm. Any ideas how I can remove this plate without tearing the front end down?

Thanks.

 

[tjkj2002]

Gotta pull that front mount off which requires the drivers side LCA front cam bolt to come out so you can pry the LCA out enough to remove that bolt.Then it will require a alignment after.

You can loosen that bolt,cut the head off with a hack saw blade(notice I said blade as the whole hacksaw will not fit) which will take a long time as it's a high grade steel bolt then you can remove it without LCA removal.But then you have to buy another bolt but install it backwards.

 

[sevenhelmet]

^^^Sounds like a man who has been there done that.^^^

 

[tjkj2002]

^^^Sounds like a man who has been there done that.^^^

Well only to pull the front diff out when I swapped in the new one with 4.10's and DTT,then to pull out to sell and stupid me put that bolt in the same wayp:,never needed to remove just the diff cover when installed in the KJ due to having a drain plug to change the gear oil.

 

[Kaleb.Speegle]

Appreciate it man. Never even thought about cutting it out. Whichi probably wont, I'll just remove the front cam bolt and pry the LCA to get it out.

 

[TwoBobsKJ]

Appreciate it man. Never even thought about cutting it out. Whichi probably wont, I'll just remove the front cam bolt and pry the LCA to get it out.

Why do you need to take the diff cover off? You can't do any work on the gears since there's so little room...

If you're wanting to change the gear oil there is a drain plug on the bottom. To do the job you just need a 3/8" ratchet extension for the fill plug, an 8mm allen wrench for the drain plug and fresh gear oil.

Bob

 

[sevenhelmet]

I was curious about that, too.

 

[Kaleb.Speegle]

A couple weeks ago I had to take a trip across the country. Went from Bama to Wyoming, and back. On the return trip, about 600 miles from home the front end started making a strange noise coming from the diff. I stopped and checked the it and it had less than half the amount of oil it should have, it had developed a small leak around the drain plug. So I filled it up and went home. I drained the gear oil out yesterday and it's got some fairly substantial metal flakes/ shavings in it. I just want to get in there to see how bad it is.

 

[tommudd]

A couple weeks ago I had to take a trip across the country. Went from Bama to Wyoming, and back. On the return trip, about 600 miles from home the front end started making a strange noise coming from the diff. I stopped and checked the it and it had less than half the amount of oil it should have, it had developed a small leak around the drain plug. So I filled it up and went home. I drained the gear oil out yesterday and it's got some fairly substantial metal flakes/ shavings in it. I just want to get in there to see how bad it is.

Best bet is to pull the whole diff out then and check it good

 

[sevenhelmet]

Yeah... It sounds like it may have leaked and "grenaded" during your trip. Sorry.