I am looking to change the differential seal on my 93 4runner and I wanted to know if it is a big job? It looks lik you could just unhook the drive shaft and then unbolt the front retainer plate on the differential then just pull out the seal and replace with a new one. Is it that simple of do you have to pull the axles as well? Any help would be appreciated.

 

you can change the pinion seal-it is in the front of the diff,behind the yoke-without removing the diff, but you will have to remove the axles to change the diff seal.

 

If your are refering to the seal in the center adjacent to the drive shaft andnot on the axles you can drop the drive shaft and get it out. There are a couple of watchouts.

Match mark the drive shaft so you put it back in the same orientation.

It is recommended that you replace the bearing spacer when you do this. There is a crush style spacer located in there and it is not really reusable from what I have read.

Also you will have to preload the backlash of the hypoid gears to set the bearing preload.