Hey guys,

First post here, never thought it would be in this way though. Before I go into my problem I am zipping up my flame suit because I know what I did is extremely stupid, and I hope I didn't just cost myself a lot of money.

Anyway, the problem: I was changing the front diff fluid on my '01 burban, a very simple job, but I wasn't sure if I could fit the gear oil bottle into the fill hole without a pump, so I test fit it by putting the tip of the bottle into the hole to see if I could wiggle through the supsension components. It fit, but when I pulled it out I heard a small 'pop', and realized I hadn't taken off the little safety cap, and that little cap just fell into my differential ....

SO I'm wondering if there is a way to reasonably extract this plastic cap from the differential, or am I going to have to completely open the front differential (and is this even possible for me to do myself??). I noticed it seems to float so maybe I could use a pump to pump fluid through the drain hole and float it out through the fill hole this way?

I hope I really didn't just f*** myself, and I appreciate any help anyone here can give. Thanks!!

 

Well ok, silly and smart at the same time. I think it was a good idea to see if you could get the bottle in place... so there

I'd go ahead and drain the old Fluid. It's possible that when the level drops, the Cap may move/drop toward the Drain Hole, and you may be able to rake it out with a small wire/clothes hanger.

IF you can't see it/get it out that way, they make some cleaner/wash out for the Diffs, which you could pour in the housing, and sorta flush it toward the hole and maybe get it out like that.

Now, what if you can't...
That's pretty soft plastic, and IF it got in the gear drive while you were driving, I doubt if you'd even notice it before it chewed it up to fine particles, and, I think that after it was chewed up, the particles would settle to the bottom of the Diff and you'd be ok...maybe

This is just a guess on the results of leaving it in there, I've never had that happen to me.

Good luck though

PS:
Lots of people use a clear plastic tube (18-24") on the end of the Fluid Bottle, to sorta pump the fluid into the Diff, from a controllable distance.
And, don't forget to change out your Transfer Case Fluid at some point too !

 

that's one of those things that make a great story later on...
I don't have an answer either, however I am kinda thinking what SWHouston was, try draining it and if you can't get it, the plastic will probably get chewed up... if you choose that route, you may want to change the fluid out several times after driving to get the particles out...