Front Axle Seals... Who knew?

[koda2000]

this is long and there isn't really a question associated with it, so you don't need to read it unless you like listening to someone else's tale of how i spent my Saturday.

well, i finally got my daughter's 2000 Mountaineer 5.0L AWD delivered by AAA this morning. turns out the AAA member MUST be present when the car is picked up and she was on vacation in Myrtle Beach all week (how nice for her...) she had run over something in the road and blew a tire. once a spare was put on she called all freaked out to say it was leaking what she thought was trans fluid. turns out it was leaking front dif fluid out both the driver and passenger side axle seals. it didn't have anything to do with the flat tire. it was pretty well pouring out the passenger side, but the driver's side had been leaking pretty good too. knowing my daughter, it's probably a good thing she blew a tire or we never would have known the front axle seals had bellied up and she would have driven the truck into the ground. stupid AWD... the seller said it was RWD, but that's another story.

so i went to work removing the wheels, brake calipers and mounting brackets, rotors and axle nuts. then i took the outer tie rod ends and ball joints loose and removed the steering knuckles. all the ball joints are a little on the rattlely side and i'd really like to change the uca's and the lower bj's while things are apart, but she only has the money for the axle seals, fluids and a new tire right now and i gotta get the truck fixed and back to her asap, so i guess i'll leave the bj's go until next spring. she doesn't plan on keeping the truck much beyond then and only drives about 30 miles round trip to work, all on secondary roads, ssssoooo...

of course the shock bolts on one side snapped off (original OE's) so now i have to remove the rusty-ass top nut so that i can get the shock off to grind off the welded-on bolts and replace them with some grade 8's. this truck spent quite a bit of time up north, so rusty bolts are the norm. i feel for you guys who live in the rust-belt. it makes everything at least twice as difficult to do. i was able to get all the other nuts and bolts off fairly easily with the use of my impact wrench and WD40. the one thing that took an inordinate amount of time was getting a too-small rusty cotter pin out of one lower bj because i couldn't grab the damn head with anything. that wasted a 1/2 hour. i'm letting the upper shock bolts soak overnight. if i can't get them off tomorrow, out comes the saws-all and on will go some cheapie front shocks.

the front axles came out w/o a problem, but the old seals needed to be beaten out. so now the parts are on order at AutoZone and will be in tomorrow morning. then i get to put everything back together again, hopefully w/out leaks. then i need to pull the rear drive shaft to change a leaky rear t-case output seal, and adjust the new parking brake shoes i installed a couple of months ago, but couldn't adjust at the time as i had a pinched nerve in my neck. then fluids and a new tire on Monday and back it goes.

if this truck survives my daughter until spring, i may take it back and keep it around as a spare vehicle. it been a pretty good truck for $2000, but no used vehicle can survive total neglect.

 

[DjDom]

Jeez.. my front dif has been leaking for a while. Don't stress me out.

 

[jremington59]

You don't need to remove all that extra stuff to get the shafts out do you?

 

[koda2000]

You don't need to remove all that extra stuff to get the shafts out do you?

well, it appeared that you either have to take the steering knuckles loose top and bottom or remove the hub. i chose to take the whole steering knuckle loose, so i had to get it off the ball joints. the shocks were in the way of the axles pulling out so i choose to undo the lower shock bolts. in retrospect i would have saved myself time and money by trying to work around the shocks. now i need to replace them as the lower bolts broke on one side and both upper shock shafts also broke. oh well, they were the org OE shocks and needed changing anyway. now i have questions regarding one of the axles, so i need to submit a new (shorter) thread.

 

[deweyville65]

Keep in mind that grade 8 bolts are stronger in tension than grade 5. However grade 5 are stronger in shear than grade 8. This is because grade 8 are harder. However, on vehicles, I can't see where there are enough forces to make a difference. And grade 5 are a bunch cheaper than grade 8. I'm speaking AMERICAN made, not Chinese.
Where grade 8 loose out is in a situation where there is some slop, and a lot of shearing forces. Such as being used for a hitch pin. Talking old farm uses here.

 

[koda2000]

Keep in mind that grade 8 bolts are stronger in tension than grade 5. However grade 5 are stronger in shear than grade 8. This is because grade 8 are harder. However, on vehicles, I can't see where there are enough forces to make a difference. And grade 5 are a bunch cheaper than grade 8. I'm speaking AMERICAN made, not Chinese.
Where grade 8 loose out is in a situation where there is some slop, and a lot of shearing forces. Such as being used for a hitch pin. Talking old farm uses here.

interesting. however, the top shock shaft broke while i was trying to remove the nut this morning, so i removed both front shocks and replaced them them with some cheap Gabriel's, which came with grade 5 hardware, which i used.