Simon928

Hey guys. I have what appears to be an oil leak from the area where my driver side axle shaft meets my transmission. Can anyone tell from these pictures where the leak is coming from, and if so, what the best course of action might be? I initially assumed that the axle boot was split and it was spitting grease, but upon closer inspection the boot appears to be fine and the leaking substance appears to be oil.

Thanks in advance!

Simon928

Here are the pics

Speedtoys

Certainly looks like a bad Shaft seal (not so hard) or the sealing ring deeper down (harder).

ammonman

My money is on axle shaft seal. Pretty easy to do. Remove axle (or at least disconnect the inner end from the differential output flange) Remove differential fill plug, then the drain plug. While the 75W-90 is draining out clean all the mess you can get to. Once you have it mostly clean slip a screwdriver through one of the bolt holes in the flange and in between the ribs on the diff case so you can hold it in place to unscrew the 17mm?? bolt in the center of the flange. Slip the flange out, R&R the lip seal. Fill the groove in the lip seal with some grease and carefully slip the flange stub back into the differential. Reinstall the bolt and torque to 33 ft/lbs IIRC. Refill with your preferred diff lube.

MIke

Simon928

Cool, that doesn't seem so bad. I was going to be in there changing my springs anyways, so this can be one of those WYAIT kind of things. So assuming that it is in fact the axle shaft seal, there aren't any parts I need to buy before I get started, right?

Landseer

The cork seals on the inner CV joints where they meet the flanges will need replacing, chances are, also. Boots look good, so see if you can just buy the cork seals.

Plus axle seal and large Oring for each side.

Straightforward job. Just messy, especially the grease that wants to emerge from the open ended inner CV joint.

Simon928

Will do. Thanks!

ammonman

Hopefully you won't need the O-ring for the diff bearing holder as replacing that is somewhat more involved. The way the lube is being flung about by the output flange leads me to believe the issue is confined to the seal.

Mike

Landseer

Its been a few years since replacing the ORing, but I thought it was a very easy task.
Maybe I'm forgetting something, which seems like its happening more lately.

Simon928

Thanks guys, I figure I'll take it apart and if I'm not 100% sure about what needs replacing I'll post a pic or two. This car isn't going to be driven for at least a couple of months anyways. It's Snowmageddon up here right now!

Speedtoys

He shouldnt have to take it apart far enough to need that inner O ring.

Id do the simple seal..and see how it goes first.

Speedtoys

More bolts and 2 more beers.

That's a lotta work.

NoVector

In case you need to repack grease or go ahead and replace the boots, Dwayne's page is great: http://www.dwaynesgarage.norcal928.org/boot.htm

Simon928

When you guys mention the axle shaft seal, is this what you are talking about? (This pic is from Dwayne's tutorial.)

NoVector

Here's a picture from the PET with the part number.