The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline ? - leak throwing gear oil everywhere - help

I have a leak here that is throwing gear oil everywhere.
Whats involved fixing this?
thanks!!

Common pinion seal leak. The seal should be available at your local Napa or specialty aftermarket source. Remove the driveshaft, remove the large nut on the shaft, tap the flange off the shaft. It's probably a good time to drain the oil as most of it will run out anyway. Remove the seal, clean up the components, install the new seal with some sealant on the outer edge and some grease on the sealing surface. Reinstall the flange & nut. Torque the nut down, install the shaft, refill the diff.
Fred

That style of diff uses a crush sleeve between the two pinion bearings.
You should check how much force it takes to turn the pinion shaft/yoke after the nut is tightened. If it more than spic you will burn the bearings out.
All this information is in your shop manual.

Thanks guys!!

Make sure that the there isn't lateral movement when grasp the yoke and give it a firm shake. That is what ruins seals. If it is loose, you will need to disassemble the rearend so that you can inspect the pinion bearings.

This is past my skill level. What seal does this pinion take?
I found a shop that can put it in.

I'd have the shop obtain the seal, I've had customer bring me either wrong or poor quality part the want installed. A good shop will know where to get good parts.

Its a GM service. They work on older cars. They had a 1934 in last week. They wanted me to get the right one. I guess
there are different seals.

#6818 seal fits 1955-62 1/2 ton truck, and is available at any parts store.

Curious, how much did they quote you to do this? Hard to find people to work on old trucks in my parts.

I've only done a very few pinion seal changes that didn't end up also involving changing at least one bearing, either immediately, or after only a few miles of running on the new seal. The reason a seal starts leaking is usually looseness in the bearing that allows the pinion flange to wobble and damage the seal surface. Getting the preload right on a used bearing can also be a challenge when retightening the pinion nut.
Jerry

It does appear that it only leaks when that flange moves out about
an 1/8inch. Is that a sign bearing is worn?

The yoke/flange should not move in or out, you have another issue along with the leaking seal. Could be as simple as a loose pinion nut but probably has caused other damage.

Thanks ..thats what I was thinking

This is not uncommon, and don't be surprised to see quite a bit of metal that came from your pinion and ring gear.

Bearing failure can cause a lot of problems.

Can someone ID this rear end for me?

ID rear

Curious, how much did they quote you to do this? Hard to find people to work on old trucks in my parts.[/quote]

Hour and 1/2 work time

It's the standard corporate H033 rear end.
I sent you a PM.
Fred

Thanks Fred!!!

This the sheet the GM came up with that closely resembles my rear end.
Where can I find all the gears and bearings seals to repair? Spider gears?
They have it up in the air and the pumpkin disassembled.

ABf70 code

Update on this has to be funny. GM fixed the pinion seal leak.
But in their effort to inspect and ID the gears in the differential ,
the differential back cover leaks more than the PS from before.
They put some kind of grey pematex like seal.
I hope oreileys parts store will come up with the right 10 bolt round cover gasket
tomorrow. This something I can do.
They never ID the gears. Here is a paper they found that is similar to mine.
Evidently , the side /spider gears have play in them.

If there was still oil oozing from the bottom of the housing that sealant won't stick. Generally for that stuff to work the surface has to be completely clean and dry and it has to set up for several hours before filling with oil.
Fred

I fixed the leak. Gasket part#