I did a search on this already, so here goes. On all the SOA write ups I have not seen anyone mention relocating the fill plugs for the diff....shouldn't this be done??:confused:

Why would you want or need to relocate the fill plug? If the pumpkin/pinion is rotated up just park up or down hill to level it out while filling up.

or maybe there's more to it than that and I'm just :confused:

medusa
his webpage

green forty series

fill plug relocation is mentioned

Most SOA setups with rotated axle housings have them rotated quite a bit, mine will be about 30 degrees, and that is a LOT of difference in oil volume. It would take a pretty steep hill or a really tall hilift to fill it, and then filling in an emergency would be a short fill, not something I want with the pinion bearing that high up in relation to its original 'nearly at oil level' location.

All you need is a pair of hole saws and a piece of metal to plug the hole where the plug used to be...

I live in SF so 30 degrees ain't nothing around here :D

The way I did my FJ40 axle fill plugs was to cut a rectangular section about 1.5" wide and 3" long out of the diff cover. The original fill plug was located at the bottom of this rectangle. When removed, simply rotate the piece 180* so that the fill plug is not at the top of the hole and weld it back in. Grind off the welds, sand and paint and you can't tell that the plug was even moved:D

I had a bent housing I was swapping out when I did the pinion rotation so I cut out the fill hole and welded it into my new housing further up the face. I also cut out the entire bottom half of the face and welded that to my new front diff for some armor from rocks that kept on denting my old housing.


For my rearend (dana 60) I welded a nut to the inside of the cover and used a short bolt for a plug (with the correct kind of washer).

I have 4 fill plugs on my 2 diffs:p

My diff is at a pretty wicked angle and I just jack the rear up with floorjack under the rear and over fill it.

Not had a problem yet.

Hey Nolen, as often as you turn your rig on its side now, you could just take advantage of it and give the old diff a fill up before laying her back over.

Crawl back under your rock and don't come back out until you can wheel/weld again

:flipoff2:

The fill plugs are just 1/2" NPT (dana 60 ones, anyway). You can weld an extra layer of metal somwhere on the cover, then drill and tap it for the new plug.