Rear bearing and seal - 2wd

[keleko17]

I have a rear bearing seal leaking, I planned to repair it this weekend after neglecting it for some time now. The Explorer is a 1999 - 2 wheel drive.

When I got the wheel off, I found the sticky mess the bearing seal has created on the e-brake. However I couldn't figure out how to remove the e-brake assembly to get to the seal. I could see 4 bolt heads behind it, and the nuts are easy to get to. I tried a box wrench on the nut to see if the bolt was keyed into place or something, but the nut started to round off, so I stopped, and put the thing back together.

Am I missing something? I thought it would a rather simple repair. Any help is appreciated.

 

[RomeovilleIL]

To change out the seal, you have to pull the shaft from the differential. The e-brake is best removed after the shaft is out since it's basically held in place by spring pressure. Getting the shaft out involves removing the rear differential cover and pulling the c-clips. Pretty good write-up with pics:

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=214805

2WD and 4WD explorers both use the same 8.8 rear differentials.