Hi all, we are completely new to the Toyota motor home community!
About a month ago we purchased a 1986 Sunrader 18′ Shorty, and are working on getting it comfy and safe for a cross-country road trip.
The original rear differential was very loud and needed to be replaced. Our mechanic in NY found one and put it in. However, it is pretty rusty and he had to epoxy part of it. We have since moved to MA.
We drove it about 70 miles with our "new" rear diff and then noticed gear oil all over it and above it. We are assuming the problem may be with the bearings and/or seal. There is some up and down play in the drive shaft.
Now we are stuck with a bad rear diff, 70 miles from the mechanic who put it in. We took it to a mechanic here in MA who cleaned the rear diff and checked the gear oil, which was only down about 3/4". There are some small bits of metal in the oil and some noise when driving.
Our questions:
1. Do you think it's safe to drive 70 miles to our NY mechanic who put the bad rear diff in? Potentially getting some of our money back or the rear diff fixed for free/cheap.
2. Give up on the one we have and have a mechanic here find and install a different one?
3. If we decide to get a new one: does anyone around the Northeast have a rear diff in good shape that they want to sell? We would be willing to travel max 2 hrs each way.
Thanks for the help!
Sorry, I may have used some wrong terms to describe the rear end. What I meant was the center section in the photo is from a junk yard, but the rest of the axle is our original. I talked to the mechanic who did the faulty job and he opened up our original center section, replaced the bearings and seal and delivered it to us for free. We then had our mechanic in MA look it over and put it on the Sunrader and....no noise! We should be all set!
