Front axel outer axel seals

Hi guys, open to opinion on my front end.*

I've just pressed out my ball and uni joints.*

I removed the diff bung, and corked an air compressor pistol into it, and had a nice air flow coming out of the axel tube ( blocking one end at a time)*

This allowed me to use a correct sized wire buffing wheel welded to an extension 1/4" rod, attached to a drill.*

And clean up the inner nicely, blowing dust out etc.*

Very little rust.*

My thoughts are now, if the new outer style axel sleeves are fitted, * (that are not exactly water tight) allow water to enter when creek crossing etc)*

How will it get out once in???

I plan on lubeing the axel shaft and inner axel* sleeves with some moly assembly grease to prevent rust.

Most of the debris I imagine etc get flung into the axel sleeves from being close to the wheel...

Is drilling a 1/4" hole either side of the diff on the underside ( too assist in water drainage) a viable option?*

I can't imagine much strength being lost...

I wouldn't do anything but re-install the factory wiper. Those seal kit can cause as much damage as good.

I bought some cheap anodized aluminum outer seals for my 30. I have not run them but they appear to be good. I knocked rust off inner tube with a hone sels fit snug bu hand on inner axle and tube. I cant see them harming anything

The aftermarket outer axle seals will only trap anything that does get by them and fail to let you know when an inner seal has started leaking. Then you end up blowing a pinion bearing due to low diff fluid.

The stock factory dust shield was put there for a reason.

There’s a mixed bag on the outer seals. I noticed on mine (after watching a YouTube video on Jeep outer seal fix or something) that the hole where the zert fits in didn’t go all the way through.. so I drilled it. Now I can keep a layer of grease between the axle shaft and where it snugly pops into the seal. This will help it from cracking when climbing rocks etc as well as help prevent water and grime from making it in.


If I do a lot of fording it isn’t hard to pop em off to remove anything that’s found its way in. Since you use RTV they can be reused.

The stock little rinky dinky piece of crap was cracked on both sides and had trapped a bunch of crud in the tubes. At least these ones won’t fall apart- since the stocker crap did just enough to trap funk anyway...

That’s my 2 cents.

Been running them for 3 years, keep everything inside clean. I don't play with water much either though.

I think it's a debatable thing. Wetherell the inner or outer leaks and pinion goes dry I believe it comes back to maintenance error.

I tend to pull the plug every so often and dip my finger. If it comes out good n wet shes happy if dry well shes needs some tlc.

I can see both sides of the debate.

I'll check my grease zero passages

I to only bought the cool anodized ones because the stock ones fell apart. Tons of crud in the tubes.

I was wondering if I was missing the point.....
I guess not, it dose apperar to be debatable it seems.
I've seen some sad axles being removed on YouTube!
Mine mostly had wet sand .
Going to run with the two 1/4" hole idea, too let out out any future water entry.
But will tap a thread into them. Plug easily later on if needed.
Oil seal leaks will be obvious in time. And at least this way the won't leak all over linkages.
Thin wipe coat of moly assembly grease over the shafts and inner walls.
Got to be better than stock design.