Front Differential Removal

Thanks in advance for responding to this post.

I own a 1990 toyota 4x4, 22r-e engine. Lots of miles. I need to remove the oil pan to do some work down there. I noticed that there is the large 'pumkin' transaxle blocking the pan. I need to somehow move this out of the way to make room to remove the pan.

I own a chiltons manual and it vaguely describes how to do this at best. I have also looked online and nothing really tells me a 'dirty' way to do this. We're only talking about inches really. I'm not sure which bolts I need to loosen. I am a bit nervous because I don't want the whole truck coming down on me if I unscrew the wrong bolts that hold up the truck.

Thanks!

In case anyone else needs to do this, I finally figured out howto do this with the help of users and the FSM Sticky.

Basically if you need to lower the front diff. There are 3 big bolts that tie the diff to the frame. One is in front, and the other two are on the left and right side of the diff. They are big bolts with rubber gromets installed. There is also a cross beam at the very front of the truck which also attaches to the diff.

Remove the diff front bolt, remove the cross beam, place a jack under the diff to hold it up. Remove the other two bolts and then use the jack to lower the diff about 6 inches, and out comes the pan.

No need to remove any engine mounts or move the engine.

Thanks for the update.