You won't have to remove anything to access any of the bolts. The filler faces the front of the car on the front of the transmission and it points slightly downward. One drain bolt points straight down (transfer case drain) and the other faces the drivers side of the car on the side of the transmission. It will be right by the control arm on the drivers side. They very large bolts and will stick out to you once you get under the car and look at them.

Again, make sure to pop the filler BEFORE popping out the drain plugs otherwise you're SOL

OK, so yesterday I finally had a chance to change out my rear differential oil.  I've recently bought a house, and have been very busy with that since around the time I originally planned to change out the oil (back in Feb I believe).  Anyways I was trying to find the torque specs for the filler & drain bolts in the service manual, but can't seem to find them for the life of me.  I'm pretty sure I did see them once before, but I must have forgotten to bookmark them.  I ended up torquing them both to about 45 foot-pounds.

The filler bolt was a b**** to break loose, I had to remove a tire and use a cheater bar on my breaker bar!  I'm guessing it was over-torqued by the previous mechanic.  No way should it have been that tight (I'm not a big or strong guy, but if I had to guess I'd say it was over 120 ft-#s).  The oil that came out was kind of brownish so I'm guessing it was due.  There was some sludge on the drain bolt's magnet as well.

I'll be venturing into my garage for the front differential & tranny sometime soon.  Hopefully it will be easier to fill than the rear diff.  

I had the same problem on both my transmission filler case and my rear differential, and I also had to use a modified breaker bar inserted inside a pipe.  Did you put on new washers/gaskets between the filler bolt and the housing and the filler bolt and the housing? My FSM calls for this.  I got mine through one of the Toyota parts houses.  I discovered that on my A-T, if you don't put on the filler washer/gasket, the filler and drain bolts don't fit snug, allowing transmission fluid to drip out.  I believe the part # for the rear differential filler and drain plugs is: 12157‑10010.  That is, both filler and drain plug take the same gasket.

Of course, you could always re-use the old gasket if it is not damaged and still makes a tight seal.

I was wondering about whether or not I should change out those gaskets.  They looked fine so I just cleaned them up and re-used them... will keep an eye on them to make sure they don't leak.  I just hope I used enough torque on the bolts.


Edit: Earlier today I finished changing the transfer case & transmission oil.  When I went on a run to get gas, I could swear my wagon was driving better than usual.  Would changing out the old gear oil for new oil really make that much of a difference?  I also rotated my tires (fronts to rears and vice-versa), though my tires don't seem to be really worn out that much.