Sorry for not being around much lately but life has been rolling away up here. but it looks like our acidic soil is going to get me to do something on my Montero other than just drive it.
Yah the rear cover on the diff housing on my 3.8 powered SR has rusted though. nice puddle on the ground in just one day,


And a bit closer view, You can see the oil dripping off the housing here.


Maybe it is time to do the 6 speed swap now that I will not be driving this till I figure out the axle replacement. I am not in the mood to do all the cleanup to weld patches on this.

Yuck !!!!!!!!

To bad you live on the other side of the world Charlie.
There are plenty of rust free ones around here. I'd ship you one, but the cost would not be worth it. I guess the welder and a bit of paint will have to due.

Good to hear from you.

I actually am thinking of shipping a housing over from AZ. I will be checking on this once the yard opens today. The housing alone would not be bad shipping wise.
If I do the manual swap at this time I will consider changing to the 4.22 ratio as well. So I might start shopping for front & rear carriers to.

Hate to admit this, but I had one do the same. I drained it so as to not leak for the moment, cleaned the heck out of it so no residue on the outside, then used our old friend FB followed with some rattle can paint. That was on the SWB a good seven years ago. Granted it hasn't seen much road time, but it has held up fine so far. I went this route at the time thinking I'd get an MS locker at some point...

You Know Bill, you have a good idea there. I might just bandaid this with POR 15 till I can get to it and do it right. That way I can have the Monti available for the 4th weekend rather than it sitting waiting for parts.
it will be curious to see how well it would hold up and once I pick the rust flakes away just how bad the perforations are.

Ospho too. It's the same basic stuff as the POR-15 primer- pretty much phosphoric acid. Mine had a few pin holes that would weep the gear oil, but not so big that I worried about the JB leaking back through to the inside.

FM, ive never seen that ! whats in the air over there? Battery acid??

I ve even got a 40's Ford Prefect ute sitting near my property & its diff is still intact & its been sitting for at least 30 years!

It has to do with all the pine trees that make the soil acidic. We have very little pavement here so the vehicles never really dry out. Kind of take one's will away from owning nice stuff to drive.

I have the rear 4.22 third member with the locker. It's yours come get it.

I have no idea what it would cost to ship. Make the arrangements and I'll send it on it's way.

I can also take apart if you just want the gears.