Front Pinion Seal leak

[alburms311]

Hello all! So I have been nursing a neck/shoulder injury for a while now and took some time off work a few weeks back. I made a poor choice, and decided to take my M1009 down to a local mechanic to have the front pinion seal looked at and replaced if that was what was causing my leak while I was off. The guy calls and tells me that was the problem and replaced the seal. I get it home and park it, come back out later the next day and it is still leaking, except its worse this time. I take it back to the garage and they call me back stating the seal was fine but the replaced it again anyway. Needless to say, it is still leaking and I am just going to get my son to help me tear into it this weekend. Any advise from those of you who have done this before?

 

[Skinny]

Probably needs a yoke due to heavy groove on seal mating surface. Another probability is that since it is a crush collar pinion bearing setup, the shop screwed up and now you have serious problems. Does the yoke have any play? Also, do you see any markings on the pinion nut?

Replacing pinion seals on crush collar axles suck and requires some finesse. I would safely say 90% should not be touching them but are.

 

[alburms311]

I will check for play this afternoon. So in your opinion, or any others, should I just write this up as a lesson learned or should I take it back to the shop and see how they address the issue. I really should have just lived with the small leak(half dollar sized on floor every few days) since now it has grown to an eight-ten inch leak on the floor every two days.

 

[Skinny]

See if it has play first...

 

[alburms311]

I was going through some pictures I have saved and I came across a picture of this same area, and there seems to be more space between the yoke and the diff housing now than there was before, or it could just be the angle of the picture. I will report back regarding play this afternoon.

 

[alburms311]

See if it has play first...

No play, and no scribe mark that I can see. I guess they could have measured the lbs it took to loosen the nut, that may explain no mark. I found a yoke online today reasonably priced if replacing it's the next step I need to take.

 

[Skinny]

If there is no witness mark they either measured the pinion preload (very rare someone does that) or counted the turns of the pinion nut (more common but certainly not preferred). I would throw a yoke and a new seal. I can't count how many times I've replaced seals for them just to leak again. The bad part about old rigs is trying to keep the oil in.

 

[alburms311]

Sounds like a plan, thanks for the words of wisdom. And I agree 100% on that last statement! I'll update when the job is done.

 

[acesneights1]

Probably needs a yoke due to heavy groove on seal mating surface. Another probability is that since it is a crush collar pinion bearing setup, the shop screwed up and now you have serious problems. Does the yoke have any play? Also, do you see any markings on the pinion nut?

Replacing pinion seals on crush collar axles suck and requires some finesse. I would safely say 90% should not be touching them but are.

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Have someone that knows WTF they are doing look at it. You blow that diff and your wheel, axle and all will pass you. Not fun..trust me. That is why I scrap the 1/2 diffs and swap in 8 lug full floaters. I'll ne ver own a c clip diff ever again. Junk.

 

[Skinny]

C-clips and crush collars...all created to cut costs and reliability.

Although I can't say too many bad things because the 14 Bolt has a crush collar. Then again, you can remove the entire pinion housing and work on it off the truck. What a great freakin' axle

 

[DodgerRoger]

Check your vent also, but likely a worn out seal surface on the yoke or it was left to loose. To tight and youll burn the bearing up though so watch it. Find a new shop also.

 

[M1008BOV]

Find a new shop also.

Agreed, any reputable shop would have caught this and informed you rather than just patch it and send it on it's way.

 

[alburms311]

So I got around to fixing this last night. The yoke did have a bit of a groove in it, so I went ahead and replaced it. The problem I found though was the seal they used was the wrong one....The correct seal is a National 8622.