I think my axle seal is bad.

[nickrahn]

So lately I have noticed my explorer pulling to the right on hard braking. I just changed all the brakes and everything is adjusted correctly. Today I found a puddle of some fluid under the rear of my truck, looked under and see fluid dripping off the drum o the drivers rear side. I suspect the axle seal cause if it was the wheel cylinder my brake pedal would be low.

Question is, has anyone ever changed an axle seal on a 92 explorer before? and how hard is it? tips and tricks? Good thing I need to change the rear differential cover seal. I do believe I have to take that cover off to be able to release the axle so I can pull it out right?

 

[my pos mounty]

I do believe I have to take that cover off to be able to release the axle so I can pull it out right?

Yep, you will. Strongly suggest replacing both axle seals. If one is gone, is the other on its way?

Put truck up on jack stands
get the axle fill plug out first, if you can't fill it, don't drain it
Remove wheels/tires
remove rear brakes
remove diff cover and what you will see is below. (For these pics, the whole axle assembly was removed from the truck)

remove cross pin locking bolt (borrowed this pic from other thread, shows bolt) REPLACE this bolt when putting it all back together! These bolts are well known for snapping and leaving 1/2 of it inside the carrier.

Remove the cross pin:

Rotate the rear driveshaft to turn the carrier and don't let the spider gears turn their way out of the carrier.
push axle inwards and remove the "c" clips on the end of axles inside the diff. You can see it just inside of the "S" spring in the pic below. By the way, you may or may not have this spring in your carrier. It is installed in the limited slip only.

remove axle - check axle for irregular wear in the area axle bearing rides, replace if necessary. The axle below doesn't look too great, however I checked the surface that the bearing rides on with my fingernail and found no grooves or irregularities, so I re-used it.

Using a seal puller, pull the axle seal.
check the axle bearings, replace if necessary.
This is what I had. Bearings were ok, so they stayed.

clean out the diff and the seal bore
place axle seal on the bore as flat as possible
Tap axle seal into bore with hammer and socket (unless you have a seal driver) Like so:

I also used a light grease on the back of the seal after installation, a lubed seal is a happy seal

Repeat for the other side of the truck.
Put it back together.
Replace that cross-pin locking bolt

 

[Carguy3J]

1.) Jack up either affected side, or whole rear (might as well do both sides while your at it)
2.) Remove wheel(s) and drum(s)
3.) Loosen rear cover
4.) Drain fluid
5.) Remove rear cover
6.) Remove carrier cross-shaft retaining bolt - careful, they have a tendency to snap- and that would suck!
7.) Remove cross-shaft
8.) Remove axle shaft C-clip(s) - Probably best to do one side at a time, to avoid dropping the side gears.
9.) Give the axle a good yank, from the wheel flange, and remove it from the housing.
10.) Using an approriately sized axle bearing puller and slide hammer (These can be "rented" for free from your local AutoZone or Advance), yank the old bearing and seal out. (Might as well do the bearing too). Using an appriatley sized bearing/seal driver (also can be "rented"), and a hammer drive in the new bearing, then the new seal.
11.) Using your finger and some clean gear oil, lightly lube the new seal, then carefully reinstall the axle shaft. It may take a bit of wiggling to get it past the splines on the side gears.
12.) When it's all the way in, reinstall the C-clip, then, give the axle a good yank outward, at the wheel flange, to "seat" the C-clip.
13.) Repeat for the other side
14.) reinstall cross-shaft and the retaining bolt.
15.) Using RTV (forget the gasket) , reinstall the diff cover, and refill to the bottom if the fill plug.
16.) After thoroughly cleaning the drums and shoes with brake cleaner, reinstall the drums and wheels, and lower the truck. (Note: if they are saturated with gear oil, you may need to replace the shoes again, regardless of how new they are.)
17.) DRIVE AWAY!

 

[Carguy3J]

Damn it POS......Damn you and your faster typing....

 

[my pos mounty]

Damn it POS......Damn you and your faster typing....

Trust me, my typing is anything but fast. It is slow and typo filled. I just edit fast from all the practice I get

 

[Carguy3J]

Trust me, my typing is anything but fast. It is slow and typo filled. I just edit fast from all the practice I get

That's ok, my steps are numbered, making it a better "how-to" and making me feel better....nah-nah-nah:

(don't ya just love these little emoticons?)

Off-topic: Is your avatar an Alpaca?

 

[my pos mounty]

Yep, it is. I made the avatar from a pic that my wife took at her first ever real country fair last fall.

 

[my pos mounty]

So, I was just sitting here, bored out of my skull and had these pics sitting in my photo albums and thought I would put them to use. They came from my rear axle assembly swap. I was going to do a total write-up on how-to do that, but soon after the few pics I have were taken, the digital camera I was using took a crap. At least I didn't lose them all.
And Carguy3J ?? HA! I think mine looks better now! LMAO

 

[nickrahn]

Thanks guys. Don't seem too hard but I really don't look forward to doing this. The detailed instructions and pictures will really help.

And are alpacas like llamas? :

 

[my pos mounty]

lol, seems our playing around is definately to your benefit.
Whole job shouldn't take much more than an hour or so. Depends on your "refreshment and planning" schedule, which is code for drinking and bullshyting with your buddies.

An alpaca is close to the appearance of a llama, the alpaca is a little smaller animal. It is bred for its hair, not for work (like a llama is).

 

[Tony H]

You might want to spend the extra $$ and put new Bearings in. Many times it is a tired bearing that heats enough to screw up the seal.

1. You will need a slide hammer to make short work of the Seal and old bearing. I did mine last year, about 1 hour job for both sides.
2. Put Wheel bearing grease on the back of the Seal to hold the Spring in place as you tap it in.
3. If the car is angled toward you you will get gear oil dripping out that end of the axle. You may want a big pan to catch the oil as you open the back cover and a smaller one ready to catch what runs out of the axle end. Or make sure that end is jacked up high enough so the oil flows to the center of the car.


Do yourself a favor, unbolt the Lock bolt, before fully removing it, rotate the 'Ham' down so you can fully remove the Lock pin AND cross pin.
This way you can pull the Bolt, slide out the cross pin, push in the axle, remove the C clip then without touching a thing, you can slide the Cross pin back in and just put the Bolt back in to hold it as you work on the seal. This will assure you that the Spider Gears wont shift. It helps to have someone handy to push the axle in so you can get at the C clip. Same on reassembly, have someone push te axle in up to the Cross pin, take the bolt out, the cross pin out have someone push axle in deeper, set the C clip and have them pull it WITHOUT ROTATING THE AXLE. Move onto the other side.
Very slippery stuff.

I thik this site has PICS too. http://www.explorer4x4.com/axleseals.html

 

[nickrahn]

So I took a look see today on the situation and thankfully it was not the axle seal. It was the wheel cylinder. kinda sux tho, I just replaced everything but the wheel cylinder and drum. now I gotta hope that brake cleaner will clean up the drum and new shoes.

What does one do with alpaca hair? Maybe upholster their explorer?

 

[my pos mounty]

So I took a look see today on the situation and thankfully it was not the axle seal. It was the wheel cylinder. kinda sux tho, I just replaced everything but the wheel cylinder and drum. now I gotta hope that brake cleaner will clean up the drum and new shoes.

What does one do with alpaca hair? Maybe upholster their explorer?

I wouldn't bet on brake cleaner cleaning up the brake shoes. I would get new ones for the piece of mind if not for anything else.

Alpaca hair is alot like wool, it would make for itchy seat covers :

 

[Tony H]

I didn't ask but That is a way to tell what's leaking.

If teh Rear Passenger side is leaking and teh car fades to the left when braking. Usually that means Gear oil on the Passenegr rear shoes. If the car pulls to the Right that means Brake Fluid on the right side shoes. Brake fluid makes shoe very grabby.

You can try brake cleaner and 60 grit sandpaper on those shoes ...no guarantees

 

[msilver]

You guys both did a good job with your write ups (personally i liked the pictures). Thanks for the info.