Leaking (blowing!) diff fluid. Hole in axle housing?

[ShadowsPapa]

I’d agree based on having had a few of them leak on me. Coincidentally, I’ve discovered a super recent front diff pinion seal leak. Super slow and no flinging, but I need to fix it. Care to elaborate on it being easy? Do I need to remove everything in the diff, meaning all the gears? Obviously it needs to be drained. Is the seal replaced from the outside, or from the inside? Thanks. I’ll google things as well.

"It depends". Why is it leaking. If the bearings are fine, you can actually do it without tearing things down.
If things are loose or there's a suspect bearing, the axles, carrier and then pinion need to come out.
But for leaking seals, I do most of those on vehicles with nothing else wrong just by dropping the driveshaft, pulling the yoke and replacing the seal. There's a crush sleeve in there, but if you take care, you can put things all back wiithout actually pulling the front bearing out and replacing the crush sleeve. If you are picky (or anal) you'll pull the front bearing, the crush sleeve, then put in a new sleeve, put the bearing back, install the seal, and follow the process on setting pinion preload and so on.

Naw, just replace the seal. Done a lot of those without issue.

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[WILDHOBO]

"It depends". Why is it leaking. If the bearings are fine, you can actually do it without tearing things down.
If things are loose or there's a suspect bearing, the axles, carrier and then pinion need to come out.
But for leaking seals, I do most of those on vehicles with nothing else wrong just by dropping the driveshaft, pulling the yoke and replacing the seal. There's a crush sleeve in there, but if you take care, you can put things all back wiithout actually pulling the front bearing out and replacing the crush sleeve. If you are picky (or anal) you'll pull the front bearing, the crush sleeve, then put in a new sleeve, put the bearing back, install the seal, and follow the process on setting pinion preload and so on.

Naw, just replace the seal. Done a lot of those without issue.

That’s fantastic. Having not done it, I thought maybe it was pressed in on the other side, inside the housing. So the seal, crush sleeve, and bearing can be replaced from the outside?

 

[ShadowsPapa]

That’s fantastic. Having not done it, I thought maybe it was pressed in on the other side, inside the housing. So the seal, crush sleeve, and bearing can be replaced from the outside?

Sort of.
Seal, for sure. And you can access the crush sleeve, and the front bearing, however........ there's that danged bearing race pressed into the nose of the housing. That can be done, too - and I have replaced front bearings, but it's not a fun thing. Easier to take it all apart if you have a bad bearing.
My bet - you just have a seal issue.

 

[WILDHOBO]

Sort of.
Seal, for sure. And you can access the crush sleeve, and the front bearing, however........ there's that danged bearing race pressed into the nose of the housing. That can be done, too - and I have replaced front bearings, but it's not a fun thing. Easier to take it all apart if you have a bad bearing.
My bet - you just have a seal issue.

Awesome. Thanks. So replace seal and crush sleeve, as yes, I am anal about things?

 

[EricStanley]

Cleaned everything up, added oil to the differential and almost immediately it started leaking out of the pinion seal without even moving the truck. So yeah it’s the seal.

 

[WILDHOBO]

Cleaned everything up, added oil to the differential and almost immediately it started leaking out of the pinion seal without even moving the truck. So yeah it’s the seal.

That’s a hell of a leak. So glad you got gas at that time. You saved your diff.

 

[EricStanley]

That’s a hell of a leak. So glad you got gas at that time. You saved your diff.

Absolutely amazing and lucky timing.

 

[EricStanley]

That’s about 2 minutes after cleaning and letting it sit, cleaning it again, and letting it sit. About that much each time.

 

[Stan H]

I’d agree based on having had a few of them leak on me. Coincidentally, I’ve discovered a super recent front diff pinion seal leak. Super slow and no flinging, but I need to fix it. Care to elaborate on it being easy? Do I need to remove everything in the diff, meaning all the gears? Obviously it needs to be drained. Is the seal replaced from the outside, or from the inside? Thanks. I’ll google things as well.

Seals on the outside . Skip to 19:20 seconds . This is from a regear video but it is a Gladiator axle thats why I chose this video

 

[WILDHOBO]

Seals on the outside . Skip to 19:20 seconds . This is from a regear video but it is a Gladiator axle thats why I chose this video

Thanks. I’m going to call my parts guy to see if they have the seal and crush sleeve in stock.

Haven’t watched this yet, but will today.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Thanks. I’m going to call my parts guy to see if they have the seal and crush sleeve in stock.

Haven’t watched this yet, but will today.

I didn't take too many pictures of the last two differentials I did......... mostly carrier bearings and such.
One word of warning - if you do this and use a new crush sleeve - EAT YOUR WHEATIES, work out a few days first. It's CRAZY to get those started.
I usually have to use a tool to hold the pinion yoke from turning while I give it my all with a long breaker bar to get that thing started to crush.
Then watch out as you have to pay attention because once a crush sleeve starts to crush, it gets easier as you go and it's easy to overshoot the runway. I've seen some beginners go through 2 or even 3 crush sleeves because they kept cranking too much.
There are a lot of DIYers who use them over - I don't like to because that's assuming the setup was perfect to begin with, no wear and no possible deviation from specs.
You probably know I just don't trust they easily.
The kicker is - the pinion preload will now also include any preload or load on the carrier bearings. So it's important to follow the process.

 

[Sweetums]

A trick for the crush sleeves is to put them in the shop press and just get them started a tiny bit, it's that first part that's the hardest.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

A trick for the crush sleeves is to put them in the shop press and just get them started a tiny bit, it's that first part that's the hardest.

Damn - 50 years of doing those and you just now tell me about that? All those calories wasted.


AMC had a loong handle with an insert that went into one end and bolted to the yoke - the center was open for a large socket to fit the pinion nut.
The handle of that tool (made by Kent-Moore) was long and you could either hold it (yeah, right) or let it hit against something solid as a stop while you worked the pinion nut on.

 

[WILDHOBO]

I didn't take too many pictures of the last two differentials I did......... mostly carrier bearings and such.
One word of warning - if you do this and use a new crush sleeve - EAT YOUR WHEATIES, work out a few days first. It's CRAZY to get those started.
I usually have to use a tool to hold the pinion yoke from turning while I give it my all with a long breaker bar to get that thing started to crush.
Then watch out as you have to pay attention because once a crush sleeve starts to crush, it gets easier as you go and it's easy to overshoot the runway. I've seen some beginners go through 2 or even 3 crush sleeves because they kept cranking too much.
There are a lot of DIYers who use them over - I don't like to because that's assuming the setup was perfect to begin with, no wear and no possible deviation from specs.
You probably know I just don't trust they easily.
The kicker is - the pinion preload will now also include any preload or load on the carrier bearings. So it's important to follow the process.

Thanks to this thread, sorry for the hijack, I’ll do this tomorrow. My preferred parts dealer had both the seal and crush sleeve in stock.

 

[Minty JL]

Pinion seal failure

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