Ron Helmuth
Senior Member
I got the rear diff breather extension done by myself on Saturday. I am about as mechanically inclined as a monkey in a china shop- but thanks to several well written writeups out there-was able to get it accomplished.
a couple of tips:
Learn how to use your jack -lower your spare tire and so on-in a nice dry spot-way before you ever need to do it on a dark and wet deserted road somewhere. The instructions in the owner's manual are a bit sketchy. The long handle for turning the jack inserts with the square end in the round hole just below the cargo floor and yes it is at a slight angle towards the drivers side.
You have to lift the rear liftgate to see this round hole.
Once you have done it-you will laugh at me even mentioning it-but again this is so easy to learn before you need to do it for "real".
Don't buy 5 feet or even 6 feet of tubing-buy 10 feet and keep the extra you need to cut off-give yourself some cushion at either end in case you mess one end up and need to redo a fitting connection-I did....
Plan ahead and get all the tools you need and under the back of the vehicle. Your trouble light-maybe some needle nose pliers-screwdrivers for the hose clamps-think long and hard so you don't have to beg the teenage son to grab something laying 5 feet away.
If you don't have a deep enough 12mm socket for the new threaded differential fitting(union) -a deep 1/2" may work-it did for me. Test fit your tools to the fittings before you crawl under there. a long 14mm
did work fine to remove the old threaded breather.
This whole thing from dropping the spare and doing the work and then replacing the spare took me 1 and 1/2 hours.
..I was very glad not to have paid someone to do this.
Having done so I think I can even handle the deckplate mod now-I am feeling cocky as a cat at a mouse fight.
a couple of tips:
Learn how to use your jack -lower your spare tire and so on-in a nice dry spot-way before you ever need to do it on a dark and wet deserted road somewhere. The instructions in the owner's manual are a bit sketchy. The long handle for turning the jack inserts with the square end in the round hole just below the cargo floor and yes it is at a slight angle towards the drivers side.
You have to lift the rear liftgate to see this round hole.
Once you have done it-you will laugh at me even mentioning it-but again this is so easy to learn before you need to do it for "real".
Don't buy 5 feet or even 6 feet of tubing-buy 10 feet and keep the extra you need to cut off-give yourself some cushion at either end in case you mess one end up and need to redo a fitting connection-I did....
Plan ahead and get all the tools you need and under the back of the vehicle. Your trouble light-maybe some needle nose pliers-screwdrivers for the hose clamps-think long and hard so you don't have to beg the teenage son to grab something laying 5 feet away.
If you don't have a deep enough 12mm socket for the new threaded differential fitting(union) -a deep 1/2" may work-it did for me. Test fit your tools to the fittings before you crawl under there. a long 14mm
did work fine to remove the old threaded breather.
This whole thing from dropping the spare and doing the work and then replacing the spare took me 1 and 1/2 hours.
..I was very glad not to have paid someone to do this.
Having done so I think I can even handle the deckplate mod now-I am feeling cocky as a cat at a mouse fight.
