a better D30 seal?

The D30 seals are a PITA. I think I nicked one last fall when I was swapping out shafts and it's been slowly leaking ever since. I do have a set of new ones in the garage but I don't feel like pulling the carrier out to replace them. In any case, I know of these gismos: http://jeepin.com/features/axleseals/index.asp and I'm wondering if there is anything else similar to it? I don't know if I want to seal up the whole tube like that, but maybe press/push something all the way in towards where the seal resides to help it out seal things up.

Have not heard of anythign like wha you are talking about, and last time I thought I had damaged a seal turned out to be a bent D30 housing causing pressure on the bottom of the seal

xjnation said:

Have not heard of anythign like wha you are talking about, and last time I thought I had damaged a seal turned out to be a bent D30 housing causing pressure on the bottom of the seal

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I hope that's not it.
Btw, I just found those seals for $99.95 with no shipping cost:
http://www.4x4groupbuy.com/store/pr...=1478&osCsid=2518e2a75a9a32cd7a9118cf7aeb4482

Does anyone know the website for Alloy USA? I searched on google and all I could come up with was vendor sites.

How about www.alloyusa.com ? Actually, their website is under construction.

I have a leaky front axle seal too. Remember, you spotted it Remi. I just got a couple of stock replacements and Clean-RC is gonna put them in for me when he gets back to town.

I was kinda interested in those fancy axle seals too.

xjohnnyc said:

How about www.alloyusa.com ? Actually, their website is under construction.

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d'oh

I have a leaky front axle seal too. Remember, you spotted it Remi. I just got a couple of stock replacements and Clean-RC is gonna put them in for me when he gets back to town.

I was kinda interested in those fancy axle seals too.

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I'm still divided on their practicality: Some things that make me not like them include the fact as they leak, they will be filling the tube and then how do you drain that (short of pulling the shaft out)? That's why I'm trying to figure out how to do it "better" as in control it at the carrier end wihtout doing the actual seal.

Kejtar said:

I'm still divided on their practicality: Some things that make me not like them include the fact as they leak, they will be filling the tube and then how do you drain that (short of pulling the shaft out)? That's why I'm trying to figure out how to do it "better" as in control it at the carrier end wihtout doing the actual seal.

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Agreed. That's why I'll probably stick with the regular seals. After all, the original seals lasted 140K miles.

seems like that seal wont do a very good job keeping gear lube in. i know my shafts are rusty on the outer ends, i think that it wouldnt seal very well. if they work, that is an awesome alternative to pullin those pesky inner seals out.

i thought it was obvious but i guess not, you would have to clean all the rust of the axle seal surface for it to have any chance of lasting/sealing also regardless if the seal works or not you would still have a leak so you would have to keep filling the diff untill the tubes were filled to the required level. the only to fix the prob is to change the seal anything else is just masking a prob

The tube seals are not meant to keep oil in. They are made to keep dirt out, which will help the inner seals last longer as a side effect.

explorer said:

The tube seals are not meant to keep oil in. They are made to keep dirt out, which will help the inner seals last longer as a side effect.

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That's what I was thinking. These outer axle tube seals don't have the coil spring on the seal like a regular axle seal that's designed to keep fluid in. Instead it's got two snug rubber (or some kind of synthetic) seals about 8 or 10 mm apart and you fill up the area between them with grease by way of the zerk.

I installed a set of these outer seals today so I'll get to see first hand how well they work. I do know that when I tore down the differential to re-gear and install the ARB that there was a TON of dirt in there. I pushed rags through the tubes and blew it out with my air compressor while I had it apart, so it's guaranteed to be clean now, but I couldn't imagine getting all that dirt out without taking the carrier out.

Robert

explorer said:

The tube seals are not meant to keep oil in. They are made to keep dirt out, which will help the inner seals last longer as a side effect.

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Actually I know someone who is effectively using them to combat a leaky seal. But as I said the issue is: how do you drain the tubes after you install those seals?

The seals slid in and are held in by virtue of the placement of the U-joint on the axle. They have 2 O-rings the seal them in the axle tube. If you wanted to drain the axle tubes all that you'd have to do is remove the axle and slide these seals out since they're not intended to be put in with any kind of sealant and don't have the metal that the regular axle seals have. If you wanted to do this you could get the axle out with the wheel bearings still attached so that you wouldn't have to stand on a torque wrench to put them back in place.

Robert