Front diff. gear oil

I just pulled the cover to change the gear oil in my front differential and it was like pudding. Thank goodness I haven't driven it yet. It will take a week to drain out. Anybody see any problem with pressure washing it or spraying solvent in there. Of course once it is clean I'll put new gear oil in it and drive it a bit and then change it again.

 

Just clean it out with a spray type solvent, just take note if the oil contains metal particles, most 90w has a glitter like look anyway.

 

....and check for any water damage
pitted gears, etc....

 

(Paraphrasing) one of my old manuals says to re-fill it with motor oil & drive it "nicely" for a short period of time & then drain it. Repeat as needed. This is really easy to do on the front because you only need to engage the hubs & drive around until it's convenient to drain it, as there'd be no load in 2WD with the hubs engaged but the gears would be turning to churn up & disolve the sludge. If you don't have free-wheeling hubs that even makes it easier. What you have to watch out for is the "sump" under the shaft portion of the pinion gear shaft. It will hold all sorts of things & is difficult to drain or clean unless you remove the gearset & wipe it out or remove the axle assembly & tip the pinon end up. Oh, I'll bet the source of your gooey pudding is grease from the knuckles getting in through the failed inner axle oil seals. They're located just outboard of the carrier bearings in the axle tube. It's a real fun job to replace them as even with the right tool they don't like to get started, they'd rather get (naughty word police wouldn't let me use this word) c-o-c-k-e-d & damaged than go in straight!

 

I have a spray knozzle that sucks up solvents and sprays it out a a pretty good pace. I flushed it out last night. Today I need to really look it over inside.
I woul think it just cooked gear oil but the level was over the fill plug, something, grease or water is getting in there. It might have been years since anyone checked or changed it.