Replacing the front pinion seal. Help Please.
 

Well my front differential is leaking diff fluid at the point where the driveshaft meets the diff. A buddy of mine said that it looked like I needed a new pinion seal thing so I ordered one on the net and I just wanna make sure I install it right.

I assume all I have to do is bleed the diff of its fluid, then unbolt the driveshaft from the diff, take out the old seal, and put in the new. Is it that simple?

Hey I'm interested as well.....anyone....:dontknow2:

Well if we don't hear back from anyone before tomorrow afternoon I'll post my success / failure story!

Will do. I hope it goes well.

You probably don't even need to drain or lower the fluid level. Most of the time the fluid is about even with the seal, so just put a catch container under the diff, unbolt the driveshaft, remove the nut that holds the yoke on. Remove the yoke, then "CAREFULLY" remove/pry out the seal. On these Dana 30/44 I am not sure if they use shims or a crush sleave. If they use a crush sleeve that should be replaced. It is located behind the outer bearing. If they use shims, then install the new seal, carefully install the yoke, and retorque the nut (nut is recommended to be replaced ever time). Reconnect the drive shaft and your all set.

Good luck!

Thank you for the information. Can you (or someone) please explain to me the difference between a 'shim' and a 'crush sleeve' and what they do? Would I absolutely have to replace the crush sleeve if it uses one?

DeepSky - When mine started to leak I took it to the Dealer for warrantee work. It turns out that it stopped leaking on its own, though the Dealer was willing to fix it (if it was necessary).

The FSM has a semi-elaborate torque recording/setting approach. Before you remove the pinion nut, you measure the torque in inch pounds that it takes to rotate the pinion nut with the transmission in neutral, your Jeep on a hoist, and the brakes removed (so there’s no external resistance).

When torquing the new seal and new nut down you start at 160 ft. lbs, and you measure the torque to rotate the pinion nut in inch pounds and keep increasing the torque on the pinion nut by 5 ft. lbs. until the rotational torque matches the recorded torque plus 5 in lbs.

It says that if you hit 400 ft. lbs and still haven’t achieved the proper rotational torque then the collapsible spacer is probably damaged.

I am all for asking questions on this site, but...
If you are wanting to do this kind of work yourself, why would you not have the service manual (or CD) to go by?:dontknow2:
Everything you need to know to do this job is in the manual.
I tried to copy and paste the pages for this job, but the illustrations don't copy.

Thanks for the info Joe, but I ended up chickening out :rotflmao1: I'm just going to take it to the dealership.


Thanks for trying. I've thought about getting a service manual, but from what I understand they are pretty pricey?