Is my front diff gonna explode?

2006 4WD. I recently replaced fluids for both diffs and the transfer case. Well the front diffs drain plug was stripped out and I had to drill out the inside of the drain plug and use an extractor to remove it. Finally got the plug out and I noticed the magnet that sits on the inside of the plug punched out when I drilled through it. I flushed the diff with new oil a couple times and fingered out all the debris I could reach, but I think most of the magnet is wedged in the diff out of reach. I made a half-assed attempt with a wire hanger and flexible magnet to retrieve the piece with no success. I'm concerned I have no way of reaching the magnet and it might come loose and grenade my front diff. Or is the magnet soft enough that it might not destroy the gears and I should just regularly flush it to clear shredded magnet? I really do not want to attempt disassembling the diff myself, and I imagine it could be quite expensive for me to bring it to a shop. What do you think?

 

IMO - it’s gotta come out. I’d go to an auto parts store and buy a nice powerful magnet you can feed in there that’ll work... but you’ll have to get the right magnet. If you can’t get it, I’d take it in and have a shop get it out. One way or another, if you can’t get it out, that diff has to come apart. If you leave the magnet, you’re probably replacing a bunch of parts and paying for the labor. If you don’t run it, you’re only paying for the labor to get the magnet out. And a gear shop might have some magic to fish it out that you or I would never think of. My .02 cents. Good luck.

 

I have no idea as the location of the drain plug. If it is on the bottom at a low point, there is a good chance it will find its way to the magnet on the new plug

 

Yeah I guess I could get lucky and it ends up on that magnet...or unlucky and shred gears. I think I'll make some calls tomorrow and hope I don't get gauged to bad taking it to a shop.

 

Just thinking, I’d experiment with the magnet you’re fishing with and the magnet at the end of the plug. You might just be pushing it around. In that’s the case, find something that really sticks to the magnet and go fishing with that.

 

Magnet on a stick or something like this. Flexible magnets aren't that strong

https://www.autozone.com/test-scan-...oemtools-flex-lighted-pick-up-tool/617293_0_0

 

Yeah that one you linked on AutoZone is more or less what I was working with. Said it was rated for 4lbs.

 

And FWIW the magnet I was using to retrieve seemed to be attracted to the magnet in the back of the new drain plug.

 

It's one of the FUBAR damn things that happens sometimes. A real "well I'll just be shit" moment. I'd cut new drain plug just to see what I'm looking for to see if it's soft or hard and the size. I can't imagine that front dif is going to be easy to work on after looking at pics of it. You sure you didn't chew it up with the drill

I dropped a 12mm socket into the air intake receiver on wife's car and said screw it. The air isn't going to lift it up.

 

I would not worry about it. Your gears are much stronger than that cheap magnet. Most likely it will stick to the bottom of the case or get chewed up by the gears. No way is the magnet gonna hurt the gears. I been wrenching on cars my whole life. Nothing gonna happen to your gears .

 

Fully this. I wouldn't worry about it

 

Good point. It's probably stuck to the bottom of the case anywho and that's why the OP can't get it to come out.

 

Honestly, with it being a magnet, it may stay put and never reach your gears. I would try to remove it, but if you can't get it, don't sweat it.

Best case, the magnet stays there and never hurts anything.

Worst case, you have to eventually replace the diff. But at that point it would cost the same as what a shop would charge you for getting that magnet out.

I wouldn't pay to fix an issie that hasn't happened yet.

 

Yeah I definitely chewed up some of it when I drilled out the plug. There's a good sized chunk in there still because I felt it when I was fingering out the other plug shreds that I could reach. Probably pushed it away with my sausage fingers. Pretty sure its lodged out of reach somewhere on the bottom front side of the diff. Maybe I'll leave it unless I hear/feel anything weird...even though at that point it'll probably be too late. Assuming it doesn't blow up all winter I'll probably change front diff oil in the spring just to see if there are any more pieces to flush out. Thanks for the opinions.
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Oh heck I thought there was a significant size pellet down there. If it's just a small piece it wouldn't hurt the gears if it somehow got unstuck from the housing. Don't waste your money or lose sleep over it. Just make sure you put anti-seize on the new one.

 

I have a lot of different sized and powered magnets where I work, they are all quite fragile compared to any metal. Your gears would easily grind it into a fine powder and you'd never even know it happened. your diff will be absolutely fine

 

I'm gonna disagree. You need to work on removing the magnet. I agree the magnet most likely will not shatter the ring gear, but a tooth of the ring gear, maybe? Just because one material is softer, in metallurgical terms than another, does not mean that the softer material cannot cause damage under the right pressure and circumstances. Think of a broken piston ring that gets embedded into the combustion chamber, or scores a steel cylinder wall.

Your diff also houses bearings, shims, and axle splines that spin wicked fast. Even if the magnet gets pulverized, you don't want the debris causing increased wear on those parts. Assume for a second you never had this problem with your magnet but I came along and said I'm going to pop off the fill plug and add an amount of sand, brass, aluminum, or soft iron shavings equal to about two sugar cubes to your diff. Would you say, "no worries mate, throw it in there, gears are plenty tough."

 

Can you get one of those inspection cameras to look for it? Personally, I’d probably just run it. I try it at low speeds first to see if you hear anything right away and slowly increase it.

Front diff plug is also rounded out and I too bought an extractor kit. I just haven’t done it yet and after reading this, I might not. All the other fluids came out clean so I’m thinking I’ll just leave that one along unless I find a easy way to remove it.

 

You could try getting a strong magnet and rub it around on your diff housing from the outside to see of you can attract the missing magnet. Make passes toward the dump hole and see if you can get it that way. It works for electricians to pull wires through a wall, don't see why it wouldn't work for you. Worth a try anyway.

If its stuck to your gears (unlikely) you'll hear and feel it soon.

 

This is why I unscrew and re-torque my diff nuts every week!

I’d recco putting a powerful sacrificial magnet on the outside of the housing to attract any broken bits of the lost magnet. Time will tell on this one, but I think the lost magnet will end up sticking somewhere in the housing on its own accord.

 

If me bite the bullet tear it down get that shit out of there. Don't even drive down the drive way. Just what i would do.

 

Get a torch and heat the metal till glowing hot and it loses its magnetism.

 

I agree that he needs to try and remove it. But if he can't get it out I feel like a shop will charge him just as much to remove it as it would cost him to just buy a replacement front diff in the unlikely event that it explodes. He could pull a used diff from a junkyard if that happens.

 

He said he thinks he bumped it with his finger and that the magnet may now be towards the bottom of the diff. I'd pull the drain plug and see if that allows any access to reach in with a pick up tool



And if that fails I'd then work on using an electromagnet to slide the pieces to the either hole for removal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGoOu8cPmeM

 

So drove around a little bit yesterday and today, tempted fate and played with 2wd/4wd...nothing interesting to report. I'll get a strong magnet and try to lure it out from outside the case. Its such a bad angle and cramped space to try to use grabber tool/small magnet/finger to get at anything. Either way I'll report back if I end up getting it out or it destroys my diff. If I don't get it out and get through winter with no problems I'll try to remember to post some pictures of the fluid I drain out come spring.

 

Good news Tyler. I’d just leave it be. Its probs stuck on the housing and not going anywhere. If you start probing with tools, you might end up with problems.

 

Yeah, sometimes better to cut your losses while you're still ahead. I'm a pretty good mechanic and yep it would piss me off, but eventually I get over it. Taking that thing off and busting open, well it better damn well need to be instead of just a little debris. I'd check the magnet in a month and bet it wouldn't show anything different than business as usual. Automatic trans may be a different story. But I ain't busting one open or probably ever will

 

Drained it again, borrowed a powerful magnet and tried to move it around outside of diff. No dice. There were a bit more magnet shavings in the oil though. I didn't get any big chunks like I thought I had felt originally, but that might have been all of it. Either way, fuck it till next time I do diff fluids.

 

If a couple or more stacked powerful neodymium magnet disc can be permanently stuck to the drain plug, leave those there for a week to a month. Possibly they will pick up the small broken magnet pieces, or powder, from the radical oil flow produced from gears. You don't want that stuff messing up your seals.