front pinion seal, need to clear up how to replace

[cashmoney37]

i have a 2000 mountaineer, its the 5.0 lifted, 4406 swap, 117k. now my front pinion seal has started to really leak, the drive shaft is flinging gear oil every were. now i know that u cant reuse a crush sleave. but i have been doing some research on the website, and some people are "saying you can just pull the yoke and replace the seal reinstall yoke tighten pinion nut down". can it really be done this way instead of tearing the whole diff out. and rebuilding.

dosnt it take like 250ftpds to start to crush the crush sleave? couldnt you just retorq the pinion nut to like 245ftpds, wouldnt that build proper pre load on the bearing? i mean u are not crushing the sleave anymore, just tightining to just before the crushing point. u would think that would put it bout right. i need some opinions, i really dont want to have to drop the diff an do a rebuild.

 

[Joe Dirt]

We didn't drop the front axle/diff to do the pinion seal/crush sleeve on my '97. With a good compressor/impact you can knock the crush sleeve down.

 

[gmanpaint]

You can try to tighten it up some and see if that helps or not. Some have had good luck doing this and some have not. Technically your supposed to replace the crush sleeve every time with the new seal.

 

[scdix50]

Do Not Let any one use impact wrench on pinion nut. A good rear setup man will not. Ask before letting him doo the work. I had to replace 2 rear diff. on BII. 2 different FORD shops did that and one was a major truck shop. Impact wrench hammers dents into bearing race.

 

[cashmoney37]

how do you get the old seal out??? and there is a groove along the yoke were the seal rides. could my drive shaft cause that groove? i have the 4406 t case in with a driveshaft out of a jeep converted to ford, like in the write ups on here. should i have had that driveshaft balanced? i dont feel any vibrations

 

[scdix50]

I don't believe it is anything you did not do, it just happens. If it was mine, I would pla on a new yoke and seal. Look around at some of the sites that have better than OEM parts. Most OEM parts are for a mommy car. If go to a Ford shop, they can only use Ford approved parts, which does not always mean your getting the best available part. You could try to do the job try yourself, or find a good shop. Be aware the mountaineer awd front diff. seems to have a problem of seal leaks and I have heard it has a bad habit of self disstructing. Good luck

 

[cashmoney37]

I ended up changing my seal, used some emery cloth on the yoke. Still can feel the groove, im a see how it goes. I found out I have a u joint goin bad, so I pulled the front drive shaft for now.