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[Tech Writeup] Replacing the seals on your Dana 30

GrimmJeeper

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Gardena, CA
This is my first writeup. I am posting it here, in the local chapter forum because i am tired of good writeups getting lost in the massive amount of new posts in the OEM and Mod-Tech sections. I would like to see a socal tech section, written up by us local guys. i know most of you guys know quite a bit about our XJs, and it would be great to have a place to keep track of it all.

Now, with that said, feel free to move this to the national tech forums if someone feels it doesnt belong here, im just trying to be a Rebel :D let me step off my soapbox and get to the writeup.



This is why i decided to tear into this job:

CIMG3033.jpg


i noticed this leak about a year ago, just seeping a little bit. i never really thought much of it, just kept the fluid topped off. all of a sudden one day it started leaking heavily, so i know it was time i had to do something about it. the hardest part about this job was the fact that the seals are located inside the axle housing... so the whole front end needed to come apart. (hooray).

here is what i started with:

CIMG3034.jpg


a tube of silicone to make the gasket for the diff cover, a couple quarts of gear oil (it takes just under 2 quarts to fill the D30), some brake cleaner to clean out the housing once it was all apart, and the carrier bearings (just in case they were bad. Napa part number BR72.) also, not pictured, the seals, Napa part #11899 (both sides take the same seal.

First, get the front axle up on jackstands, and remove the front driveshaft.

CIMG3035.jpg


then remove the brake calipers, and support them somehow so they arent hanging fornt the brake hoses. i set mine on the lower control arms, but sometimes you need to use a coathanger or bailing wire to hang them up. pull off the rotors and set them aside. now is a good time to check your brakes and see if they need replacing. mine were fine.

now remove the bolts holding the diff cover on:

CIMG3036.jpg


be sure to look extra cool by smoking while you do this:

CIMG3037.jpg


use a screwdriver to pry the bottom edge of the cover away from the housing and drain the oil, or whats left of it. my leak was bad, less than half a quart came out. its helpful to leave the top cover bolt in just a few threads so the whole thing doesnt fall off and spill your oil drip pan when you pry it loose.

now that you have the cover off the easiest way to check your carrier bearings is to place a large prybar under the ring gear and try to move the carrier.

CIMG3038.jpg


mine had no play at all. thats a good sign, i get to take the bearings back and save some money :D

the next step is to remove the axleshafts so we can get the carrier out. sounds easy right? this was the hardest part of the job and took us the better part of 2 hours. my jeep is 13 years old and it spent most of its life in ohio. thats right, you guessed it, the rust monster had a long time to work on my unitbearings.

CIMG3039.jpg


start off by spraying all the bolts with PB Blaster. if you are a smart guy like me you will forget to do this the night before to make it easier on yourself. remove the 3 bolts holding the unit bearing on and give it a few good whacks with a deadblow hammer (the kind with the lead shot inside, NOT a solid hammer). if you are exremely lucky, or if your unit bearings have been off before, they will pop right out and this point and you can skip ahead. i was very much not lucky.

CIMG3040.jpg


we even had a hard time turning the bolts loose.

CIMG3041.jpg


sometimes tapping the ratchet with a hammer helps when pure buffness fails.

CIMG3043.jpg


once all the bolts were out the unitbearings still would not move at all. ok, on to plan B. plan B consists of putting all the bolts back in about half way, and putting a cheapo socket on the head of the bolt that you dont want anymore. hit the socket with the hammer a few times good and hard and see of the unitbearing breaks loose at all. if not keep going from bolt to bolt, hitting the socket with the hammer until it starts to move.

CIMG3044.jpg


this takes awhile but it works. make sure you hit the socket NOT the bolt itself. if you try to cheat and just tap the bolts you are going to ruin the threads on the bolts and possibly the threads inside the knuckle.

make sure your friends stand around and play air guitar and talk about how bad the cheap beer you brought is:

CIMG3042.jpg
 
once you get the unit bearing loose it will come out with the axleshaft attached, all as one piece. there is nothing holding it on but the unitbearing so dont worry just pull it out and set it aside.

CIMG3045.jpg


once you get it out it should look like this.

CIMG3046.jpg


you can see the surface where the unitbearing was rusted to the knuckle. get some sandpaper and clean up this surface, wipe it down good, and rub it down with some grease or anti-sieze compound. this will make life much easier if you ever have to take the axles out again.

the next step is popping the tie rod loose so you can get the carrier out. take the cotter pin out, remove the castle nut, and put it back on about 3 turns. then hit it with a hammer till it comes loose. this way you dont ruin the threads on the tie rod end buy hitting it directly with a hammer.

CIMG3048.jpg


remove the bolts holding the carrier caps on. there should be markings stamped into the carrier caps, and the axle housing, so you know which side is which. make sure you do not mix up the caps, they are not interchangable. if yours dont have markings get a punch or a scribe and mark them and the housing. mine had a J stamped on them right side up on the pass side and horizontal on the drivers side.

CIMG3049.jpg


at thise point the carrier should pop right out, just give it a good tug. if not you may need to pry it a bit or get ahold of a case spreader. mine came right out.

CIMG3050.jpg


remove the carrier and set it aside, being careful to not mix up which bearing race goes on which side.take the races off and look at the bearings and the inside surface of the race. if the surfaces look rough, scratched, or pitted in any way, you need to replace them. mine were fine, so i get to save some money, and alot of time, by not replacing the bearings.

CIMG3051.jpg


the next step is removing the old seals from the housing. the easiest way to do this is insert a piece of pipe or a broomstick in from the outside of the axle and knock them inward. they should pop right out after a few good whacks.

CIMG3052.jpg


CIMG3053.jpg


now take a break and go eat some lunch and work on the next jeep in the driveway.

CIMG3054.jpg
 
man, that was some good carne asada, now back to work.

clean the housing out as good as you can. get the brake cleaner and wash it out completely. dont forget to clean the axle tubes out. we did this by shoving a rag into the tube from the inside, then using the broom stick from before to push it all the way to the outside of the tube. do this a few times, shaking the rag off each time and shooting some brake cleaner in there. once youve got it all cleaned out wipe out the surfaces where the seals sit and it should look like this:

CIMG3057.jpg


make sure to clean all the old silicone off the diff cover and the housing, i used a scraper and an abrasive disk mounted to a drill, the kind you clean old gaskets off with. a wire wheel on a grinder works very well too. make sure you clean all the little pieces of silicone out of the housing after this step.

rub a small amount of fresh gear oil all over the seal to make it slide in easier, and to pre lube the rubber seal surface so the axles dont tear the rubber when you put them back in. put the seal in from the inside with the horn shaped side facing towards the outside.

CIMG3062.jpg


this part will take two people, but hey, thats why you bought so much beer right? place a 36MM socket against the seal, and slide your broomstick in from the outside of the axle tube. line the stick up on the socket...

CIMG3065.jpg


and hit it with the hammer to seat the seal. it will take awhile of tapping and repositioning the broomstick against the socket to get it to seat completly. once you get one side in move to the other one and do the same thing. make sure the stick you are using is small enough in diameter to fit through the seal for when you need to do the other side. we had to switch to a piece of conduit pipe to get to the second side.

CIMG3071.jpg


CIMG3072.jpg


once you get the seals seated make sure to knock over the bottle of gear oil just past the edge of the drip board, then use brake cleaner to make the stain bigger.

CIMG3070.jpg


clean the bearings and races for the carrier off with brake cleaner to make sure you didnt get dirt on them when you were checking the bearings, then put it back together and pop the carrier in. put the caps back on and get out the torque wrench. tourqe the cap bolts to 60ft/lbs. you really need to use the tourque wrench here, you cant get away with just making them as tight as you think they need to be. improper torque settings on these bolts will cause uneven wear on the bearings, and more problems for you down the road. do it right the first time.

CIMG3074.jpg


slide the axle shafts back in slowly, making sure you dont tear those nice new seals you just spent all day putting in.line up the bolt holes in the rotor backing plates and the unit bearings. make sure you are putting the backing plates back on facing the correct way. if you dont get them on right the calipers won't go back on and you will have to tear it all back apart.

CIMG3075.jpg


place a nice even bead of silicone on the diff cover and let it sit for about 30 seconds to get tacky, then pop it on and tighten it up.

CIMG3076.jpg


put the calipers and rotors back on, put the tierod back on the knuckle and tighten the nut to pull it back into place, put a new cotter pin in it, and you're done!

CIMG3077.jpg


refill the axle housing until oil just starts to come out of the hole, and put the plug back in. put the tires on, take it for a drive, and enjoy your leak free housing.
 
:yelclap:Nice writeup Grim I liked the Photos at the critical points.
I think the challenges you had,rusted parts and frozen bolts etc.,is what we all run into. I hate manuals that show things coming apart so easlly and it takes me all day.:yelclap:
 
lamula said:
:yelclap:Nice writeup Grim I liked the Photos at the critical points.
I think the challenges you had,rusted parts and frozen bolts etc.,is what we all run into. I hate manuals that show things coming apart so easlly and it takes me all day.:yelclap:
thanks, it was really great to have the guys there that knew what they were doing. i'd have been lost if i was going by the book.
 
SWEET man, nice work on all that posting!! I agree, a local tech forum could be very beneficial! Besides, for those who come on and go to the `newest posts` part, they'd show up anyhow as tech and not much would change maybe!

Good ideas, good job, and good post man! Now go find a job.
 
best part of a local tech section is we can share where we got our parts from locally and you know theres some one local you can ask questions to that you may have already met
 
thanks guys, i spoke to the powers that be, and got the reply that "tech doesnt belong in the local forums" so this post will be moved soon, and no dice on a local tech forum. hopefully though we will get a sticky post linking to tech articles sometime. i just hope the sticky police dont come down on us again :D
 
Grim. for as much as you run azuza, you should really get a set of alloy tube seals to keep some of that sand and muck from ruining your new inner seals.. Just fyi.. nice write up..
 
Very nice write up - lucky I came across it - I was noseying in the SoCal forum - got bored of mine! Man - just how many friends did you have there? - there's like a different guy in almost every pic!

So you didn't do the outer axle seals also? I guess it will be easy to do now that you've done the hard work.

Thanks
 
Good job Grim.... nice write up with some humour! And i see you had the "A-Team" over there helping ya!:D
 
Nice writeup. I'd like to offer some additional advice tho - if you use a wire wheel (in a drill motor or on an angle grinder,) use a light touch! The steel wires that (usually) make up wire wheels are harder than the cast iron used in the housing, and you can very easily gouge the sealing surfaces if you press too hard. While you can use RTV on the gasket to make up for that, why buy trouble? You already have a Jeep - you get plenty of trouble for free...

Sometimes, you can find brass wire wheels at Sears or at local hardware stores in the clearance bins (for about a buck each,) which I prefer to use on sealing surfaces. Also, you can get Scotch-Brite Roloc disks and backing pads at the better-stocked parts houses and hardware stores, which aren't metal at all (and also leave an excellent texture to encourage gasket sealing. Not too smooth, not too rough - I find that the surface texture they leave also helps to encourage head gasket sealing...)
 
Good job Mike. That was some gooood carne asada.
 
GrimmJeeper said:
Kyung, you layed the most even bead of silicone i have ever seen in my life. haha.

Yeah I'd have to agree! Nice touch there Kyung laying down the bead!

Good write up, and the pics do all the justice for dumbasses like me!:wierd:

Carne Asada?!? Damn if I was only paying attention I would have dropped in at Branden's to help... Or at least eat, drink a couple of beers, and played air drums in the garage band.. LOL

BTW, Do you pick up your Carne Asada at La Venadita in Carson??

Again great job on the write up.

Scott
 
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