rear diff axle seal

[loneinventor]

any advice on replacing axle seals on 3rd gen rear..seal at half shaft to center section...

 

[Gudde]

Make sure you get the seals from Ford. They have improved them and they are completly different from the old ones. I used the Haynes manual for instructions but it still sucked. Make sure you have a seal driver because their isn't enough room to get a hammer in there to tap it in place. I made an extension about 24" long out of 1/2" all thread for the seal driver that worked pretty good. The toughest part I had was getting the axles to pop out of the differential. Don't pull on the end of the axle or you might screw up the CV joint. I used a large pry bar between the axle and the diff. to carefully pop them out but there isn't a lot of room to work unless you have it on a lift.

 

[loneinventor]

how much of the outer assembly do you need to remove first? ( rotor, caliper, strut, ect....

 

[ericautopart]

You'd need to remove everything including the CV axle, no? How else would you get the seal out of the diff? It's in the actual diff.

 

[loneinventor]

i know you need to take the axle out.my question was about the outer assembly....

 

[Gudde]

Yes, it's just like putting in rear wheel bearings. You have to remove the knuckle and then the axle.

 

[loneinventor]

thanx Gudde . at least you understood the question . i think i might wait till warms up a little it's in the 20's and blowin that white stuff. i think it can wait because the leak is high enough it shouldn't drain all the fluid out.. hopefully..

 

[Gudde]

Yea, I saw that you guys are getting nailed with the snow again. It's been quite the winter. You'll probably be safe driving it for a while. I would suggest getting a repair manual for it. My wife's explorer has 296,000 miles on it and I've used the manual a lot unfortunatly. I searched for a how to thread for rear diff seals and couldn't find one. I guess I should have made one when I did mine. The Haynes manual explains the process pretty well.

 

[thewho6]

Just had my done a couple of weeks ago, ford has change the seal, they know it is a problem instead with it leaking but they don't want to do a recall so they don't have fork out all the cash to fix them all.

 

[loneinventor]

if you don't mind me being nosey, how much did it cost to have the seals replaced? did they replace both sides?

 

[thewho6]

i went to meineke to have to done, with new brakes and that done it came to around 700.00 or so