Rear Diff. Pinion Seal Help

Hey guys,

After a long weekend of wheelin my '92 Laredo (4.0L, 5spd, d35rear), I've noticed that my rear diff pinion seal is leaking. The level's not too far down but i'd like to do something about it before it gets too much worse.

My question is whether or not I can replace the seal by just removing the yoke and replacing the seal then just zap it back together, or do I have to replace the crush sleeve, etc? I plan on replacing the rearend with somethin stronger in the future so I really don't want to put too much time and effort into the d35.

Thanks for taking the time to help

Tristan

MadXJ.com has an excellent writeup for just this thing.

1st though, see if your pinion has slop in it. Wiggle it up and down, side to side, in/out. There should be no play.
If the pinion bearings are worn, your seal won't be as effective as it could be.

Same with the yoke. if it is severely grooved, the seal won't last long.

Still seals are inexpensive, and not at all hard to replace.

You won't have to worry about the crush sleive. It takes some serious torque to get it to crush.

As above, you should not have a problem with the crush sleeve. Assuming that the bearings are all right, you can replace the seal, and then, since the preload on the bearings is almost certain to have lessened or disappeared with age and wear, retighten the nut, and add just a little more crush to the sleeve to get some preload back. If you're careful, it should work fine.

If you have a lot of miles on it, consider getting a new yoke, because even if the seal works on it, the yoke can wear a little bit where the tabs hold the caps of the u-joint in, and allow a little end play. When that happens, you'll have very short u-joint life.

Sweet, thanks for the input guys.