Michelle's car has a Salisbury type differential which was leaking onto the brake rotor. So today I decided to see if I could replace the seals without disturbing the preload on the bearings. Thus far it seems that the early differentials such as this have the preload set by shims and spacers so it's 'relatively' simple to replace the seals. The output shaft is held in by the five bolts and once removed is easily drifted out allowing access to the seal. I was able to pull it out and then separate the output flange from the output shaft and install the seal.
After I replaced the seals for the output shaft I decided to tackle the front seal on the pinion shaft. Getting the nut loose turned into a major project, it's torqued to 130 ft pounds at the factory but this one was considerably tighter than that, I was afraid my socket would break but I put the diff down on the floor, locked the shaft with a tire iron and it finally came loose with a very long extension on the cheater bar.
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| Pulling the pinion shaft flange |
Had to make a gasket for the output flange and have it ready to install on Monday. The new seal is different from the original so hope it works....
Cheers,
4 hrs
I think the original seal is leather? When Edd on Wheeler Dealers replaced the front driveshaft seal, he kept the diff from turning while he undid the big nut by holding the parking brake closed tight against the brake discs. Not doable for you since everything is apart. HIs replacement seal was leather. Not sure if they are anymore.
ReplyDeleteThe seal I removed was leather and the replacement is not. What I was afraid when I was researching this portion of the project was weather or not it had a 'crush' sleeve because if it did then I was going to take it to a rebuilder since this would involve resetting the preload on the pinion bearings. Fortunately the early units didn't have this feature.
DeleteI really thought that something was going to break with the force I was putting on the tools (thank goodness for the lifetime warranty on Craftsman tools). I had to use the flat end of a tire iron locked in place by two bolt in the driveshaft flange then used my 1/2" bar with a 2 ft extension on it (3.5ft total).
The other question I have is that the original had a gasket pinned between the face of the seal and the oil slinger, not sure if the new one is supposed to have one or if I can just use a little sealer on the rim?
Cheers,
Lynn