Hilux Diff WTF is this?

[Narrowscopeofreality]

I've pulled the axles out of the front of my LN106 to put in new cv's. I found a wear mark on the long axle, no scoring or gouging just a shiny line around the circumference. So I pulled out the center to search for the cause, and this is what I came across. This is the first time i've had the axles out.

This picture is taken from inside the pumpkin, looking out towards the wheel end of the long side.



It can look like a gouge/scratch in the resized pic, but it is a piece of wire(?) that seems to be fused to either side of the tube and broken in the middle.
There is no other marks, scores, gouges of any description that I can find. The only clue is the steel is a bit lumpy where the left piece of whatever it is joins the axle wall. The only thing I can come up with is when this diff was built, it's blown through with the MIG and the wire has fused to the opposite wall too. Then just left in there, and broken in half when the axle has been fitted. It doesn't look like there's been any repair work or anything on the housing. Any ideas?

[want33s]

Sounds to me like you've answered your own question. (correctly).

[the hogman]

id agree want thats exactly what it looks like

[Stubbs]

G'day,
I can't say for sure but there was a metal plate type thing in my rear axle housing but I havn't had the front diff out so I'm not sure if it has anything similar, I'm not 100% sure what that was even for either in the rear as I didnt really look at it. Is there anything on the other side of the axle housing?
Is there any sign of a repair from the outside of the housing? I would have thought that when new the housing would be checked and cleaned and something like that would be noticed.

Cheers, Stubbs

[BumbleBee]

its mig wire... i would pull it out with some long nose pliers, job done.

[Narrowscopeofreality]

Nah, no repairs. I've already pulled it out and cleaned it up, I just thought surely, surely it couldn't be wire from when it was made.