Leak where front drive shaft meets front differential

I have a '96 XJ RE5.5" LA lift with an SYE for the rear heavy duty DS.

Today I noticed I am leaking gear oil where the front drive shaft meets my Dana 30, which has an ARB air locker. What seal is this called, and what would cause it to leak? Flexing too much and the front DS being "pulled" out of the differential?

What can I do to fix this?

You're probably talking about your pinion seal. its a metal peice with a bit of rubber next to the pinion yoke? That's the pinion seal. Its one peice and super easy to change if you have the right D30. From what I've heard, some had a crush sleeve and others use shims on the pinion. Mine uses shims, so all I had to do was take the nut off the yoke, pull the yoke out, pull the seal out, put a new one in, yoke back on, and torque the hell out of the pinion nut. It's like a 250ftlb torque, so don't worry about over torquing it. If you don't know if your D30 uses shims or not, I can't help ya. Don't know what the difference is between the two axles. Now....BEFORE you go changing all that, grab the yoke and see if you can wiggle it around or not. In, out, side to side, up and down. If it DOES move, you have bigger problems than just a leaky seal. I'm not an axle guru, so I have no other advice, but I'm sure someone else will chime in here soon enough. Oh, and if it is just a bum seal, when you put the new one in, put RTV around the outside of the seal where it meets the housing. Mine was leaking from there and it stopped when I did that. Hope this helps.

90Pioneer said:

Flexing too much and the front DS being "pulled" out of the differential?

What can I do to fix this?

Click to expand...

It shouldn't ever be "pulled" out of the diff. That's why you have a slip joint in the middle of the driveshaft. sorry, forgot that earlier.

Don't hold me to this, but my "axle guy" said that the high-pinion D30 does not have a crush washer and the low-pinion D30 does.