Rear Seals Leaking Again

[cten]

Man, I spent more time than I should have changing out that one rear seal that was leaking about 5 weeks back.


I took so much time and care cleaning off all the parts and making sure I put everything back together correctly.



It lasted about 2-3 weeks and the seal is leaking again.



New cork, new seals, new bearings etc... figured I'd do the job right once.



Looks like I'm going to have to pull it apart again which will not take much time, its more so the inconvience of the truck being down for a couple of days.



I did clean the vents out a couple of months prior to doing the rear seal, so that should not be the issue.



The whole job seemed pretty simple and straight forward.



Put the cork in and the nut squashes it in the keyhole.



Go figure...



Does anyone have any suggestions why this may have occurred.



I will say that the truck turns a lot of heads.



Especially when driving down Hampton Beach in NH competing with the corvets and hogs...



My wife and kids were talking about jacking up the rear and putting florecent lights on the wheels and really pimping out our ride.



Regards,

 

[cranetruck]

I have trouble with mine too. It should be the seal not the nut that holds the cork in place though.
The problem is that if the cork is too big, it won't allow the seal to do its job. You should only tighten the nut to about 50 ft-lb, if I'm not mistaken, and if the cork is too big then the seal won't touch the bearing (=leak).

 

[jerrym35a2]

cten, Check the gear lube in the that rear end, Sound like to me that the rear end is to full.had this same thing to happen to my truck and my friends truck. We work on the trucks until we found that the rears was to full.We took lube out until it was about 1 inch below the fill hole this gives room for expansion.We haven't had any more problems after we took the lube out. Hope this helps. Jerrym35a2

 

[cranetruck]

Study this image and you'll see what I mean.

 

[cranetruck]

Yeah, you can lower the oil level within the axle housing, but that doesn't solve the sealing problem. Drive on a side slope and you'll have the bearing swimming in gear oil.

 

[ironhorsethegeneral]

Is it a grease or oil leak? If oil is getting past the outer seal you will have to remember that the seals are not 100% to seal out gear oil. It is mainly there to keep the grease in for the wheel bearings. Have truck on level ground and check how much gear oil you have in your rear end. We keep ours at just a little over a gallon (holds 6 qts altogether). Since we run synthetic even with oil level a little low it will still lubricate rear end diff and upper drive gears. Will have less tendency to flow out each side of the axle. This is what we have done and so far so good but once in a while we do have to replace one. Ours have so far lasted a couple of years. If grease leak inner seal is not in properly or it is warped not seating properly. If it not seating properly against bearing race it will leak grease. Especially if you have to much grease in hub. Hope this helps and Good Luck!!

 

[cranetruck]

The way I understand it is that the inner seal keeps water from entering the bearings when the brake drum gets filled during fording.
The outer seal keeps gear oil from getting into the bearings. These trucks can drive on 30% side slopes and the seals should do their job keeping the bearings in grease only.

When gear oil mixes with the grease, the grease will run off the bearings and they will not be lubricated properly.
Installed correctly, the gear oil (or water) will not get into the bearing housing. Still, the "after fording" procedure consists of, among other things, to check all bearings and seals. Should be done if water is only 2 feet deep.

 

[Trango]

30% slopes? Dang. I had no idea!

 

[cranetruck]

Trango, just trying to be helpful. What's you experience with the tricky cork seals?

 

[cten]

I've done all of this... I wonder if it was because I filled the rears up to the hole?

but the other seals/axles are not leaking...

Funny?

 

[Wick246]

Just one side does it?

Is it leaking from the inner seal or from around the axle shaft itself?

 

[cten]

I'll have to rip it apart again and take a good look and get back to everyone.

Thanks

Regards,

 

[Polverone]

I was reading this thread after doing a search as I have to get into one of my rear seals.
It seems that it was going good until we had the meldown.

cten - What was your prognosis?

Bjorn - You mentioned this:

Study this image and you'll see what I mean.

Any chance you could repost that picture that went away?

Thanks to all