D44 axle seal leak

stoneattic · May 17, 2009

I recently changed from 3.73s to 4.56s and changed the diff cover from stock to a RuffStuff. Since the gear swap I've had an axle leak on the driver's side. It's kind of intermittent, or at least the severity is. The serverity may be RPM related. I've changed the seal and bearing and there's no improvement. There was no scratches, galling, etc, on the axle sealing surface.

I've been searching and came across with this: http://www.stu-offroad.com/axle/arb/RD116.pdf

Check out page 9 where it mentions the drain back issue. Has anyone had this issue? I'm wondering if the gear swap, which used "thick" 4.56s to re-use my elocker, or the new diff cover (although this seems unlikely) is exacerbating the drain back issue.

TIA!

CRASH · May 17, 2009

Is your breather tube free of obstructions?

stoneattic · May 17, 2009

CRASH said:
Is your breather tube free of obstructions?

Yes. When I was replacing the axle seal I checked both the axle fitting itself and by blowing in the hose that goes to the frame rail.

Wayne Sihler · May 17, 2009

Is the retainer plate straight ? You might try a different seal mfg. I had best luck with CR seals,(Chicago Rawhide)

Wayne

flyingbrick · May 17, 2009

i have heard that there are only outter seals on the xj 44, is this true? when i went to napa to get seals, the parts guy said i needed inners as well, could someone who has done this let me know whats up?

stoneattic · May 18, 2009

Wayne Sihler said:
Is the retainer plate straight ? You might try a different seal mfg. I had best luck with CR seals,(Chicago Rawhide)

Wayne

It didn't leak at all before the gear change. Those seals were Timken. I replaced them with SKFs. I really don't think another seal will do the trick but if I don't find any other solution I'll try the CR.

stoneattic · May 18, 2009

flyingbrick said:
i have heard that there are only outter seals on the xj 44, is this true? when i went to napa to get seals, the parts guy said i needed inners as well, could someone who has done this let me know whats up?

I can't answer that for the D44, but I've seen inners listed for it also.

Back in the olden days when I was doing old Mopars the aftermarket had inner seals for the 8 3/4" available. You would use those and grease the axle bearings instead of letting the gear oil lube them. They worked well. I may pick up the D44 inners and see if they work in a similar fashion.

Wayne Sihler · May 18, 2009

stoneattic said:
I can't answer that for the D44, but I've seen inners listed for it also.

Back in the olden days when I was doing old Mopars the aftermarket had inner seals for the 8 3/4" available. You would use those and grease the axle bearings instead of letting the gear oil lube them. They worked well. I may pick up the D44 inners and see if they work in a similar fashion.

You don,t want the inner seal,how would the bearings get oil?
The old CJ D44 had inner seals-but they had a grease fitting for the axle bearings.

Wayne

Begster · May 18, 2009

Wayne Sihler said:
You don,t want the inner seal,how would the bearings get oil?

X2. With an inner seal in, there is no gear oil to lubricate the bearings.

stoneattic said:
I can't answer that for the D44, but I've seen inners listed for it also.

Back in the olden days when I was doing old Mopars the aftermarket had inner seals for the 8 3/4" available. You would use those and grease the axle bearings instead of letting the gear oil lube them. They worked well. I may pick up the D44 inners and see if they work in a similar fashion.

The inners you've seen listed have probably been for front D44s.

I don't know about doing that, with the inners and greasing the bearings. It would be a pain in the butt to pull shafts to pull the shafts and grease the bearings all the time to make sure they are properly lubed.

stoneattic · May 18, 2009

Wayne Sihler said:
You don,t want the inner seal,how would the bearings get oil?
The old CJ D44 had inner seals-but they had a grease fitting for the axle bearings.

Wayne

You grease the bearings like you would a front (non-unit) bearing axle.

mjma · May 18, 2009

Interesting take on the drainage thing...never heard of that before!

I think that I've solved the problem by sealing on the other surface of the seal with RTV. I have 2 D44s in 2 XJs, the one with 4.88s and a detroit doesn't leak as of last time I checked, and the one with 3.55s, aussie, and disc brakes, used to leak, but I think I've fixed it by RTVing in the axle seal.

Gojeep · May 19, 2009

Did you take a picture of the seal once it was on the axle at all? Very easy to fit these around the other way.

stoneattic · May 19, 2009

Gojeep said:
Did you take a picture of the seal once it was on the axle at all? Very easy to fit these around the other way.

No I didn't, but I've done a few of these and I'm confident it's installed correctly.

The thing that makes me think it's not the seal itself is the fact that it was fine before the gear swap, and stayed that same after the seal replacement.

old_man · May 19, 2009

Did you use gasket goop around the seal, where it fits in the housing. If not, you can get a leak around the seal. I have that problem. Last time I swapped axles, I forgot it.

stoneattic · May 19, 2009

old_man said:
Did you use gasket goop around the seal, where it fits in the housing. If not, you can get a leak around the seal. I have that problem. Last time I swapped axles, I forgot it.

Yes, in fact right after the gear swap it started leaking so I pulled it and re-gooped it. No change, which is why I replaced the seal. I gooped the new seal too.

I may just drill a drain hole like ARB recommends to see if it helps, but I thought that if that was the problem someone else would have encountered it before. I wonder if the combo of the "thicker" ring gear and e-locker is causing it.

mjma · May 19, 2009

That's strange....

Like I said before, the D44 with the 4.88s (thick ring gear) and detroit doesn't leak.

I think there is no real rhyme or reason to why these axles leak at the seal sometimes and don't other times. I'm gonna chalk it up to magic.

D44 axle seal leak

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