front differental seal

[DCrary]

just wondering if anyone has any tipes on replace the front differental seal on a 92 250 wit a dana 60 thanxz dan

 

[1stgen4evr]

seal

Michael, I think this one is yours. Correct me if I am wrong on the 60.



If you are asking about the pinion seal, I think it is the same as the 70 rear. You must remove the shaft at the ujoint. Then remove the yoke. You will need a tool to hold the ujoint yoke. You can make this if you have a torch and some half inch thick metal. You just need something that will fit over the yoke. Sort of a rectangular cut out. Weld a length of bar to the part you make and with a 3/4 air wrench, remove the nut, allowing the yoke to be removed. Then you can get the old seal out with a tool made to do the job. NAPA has such a tool.



If the outer bearing will come off/out, inspect it carefully. If the seal is leaking, there is a good chance that you have a bearing problem. (Although not always. I have had to replace a seal because of tall grass wraping on the yoke. ) If you do have something wrong with the pinion shaft bearings, a new seal is a very temporary fix. The next thing will be a tear down of the differential and new bearings all the way through.



In fact, you might want to inspect the other side of the differential through the cover and see if there is metal or other evidence of a problem so that you know a bit more before you do the seal. If you are pretty good a wrenching, you can do the job, whatever is required, but be prepared for about as in depth a job as you will ever tackle.



The single most common mistake in rebuilding a differential is that of not cleaning metal debris COMPLETELY. WASH, WASH WASH AND WASH.



Some body else jump in here.



James

 

[ata]

I use a 30" pipe wrench to hold the yoke while removing or replacing the pinion nut. Check the area on the yoke that the seal rides on and see if it has a groove. If it does get a speedy sleeve and seal kit or a new yoke and a new pinion nut.

 

[MMiller]

Sounds like you have the bases covered, James. Nice to see you on here again.



If there is any up and down, or side to side movement of the pinion, then don't waste your time resealing the pinion. It needs attention on the inside to set it up again.



I have a real powerful 1/2" impact and 150 psi at the air compressor and just hold the pinion with my hand. Usually I can get the pinion nuts off with it. Then pull the yoke off.



Take a small drill bit, and drill holes in the seal after getting the yoke off. Useing some small screws run them into the seal and then you have something to hook some vise grips on, or a slide hammer and pop out the old seal. Clean all the rust off the housing were the seal drives into. Make sure there are no grooves in the housing. Look at the yoke seal surface and make sure there is no groove where the seal has been running. I think the bearing will come out of there, but it probably won't come out easy.



Put grease on the back side of the seal, to help hold the little spring in the seal. Then drive the seal in. Grease up the lip of the seal, and the seal surface of the yoke, to help slide the yoke into the seal. Somebody remind me, is there some sealant that goes under the nut? Oil can come down the splines and leak out. I can't remember if there is an oring, or sealant. Then you should really have a new nut(they are self locking) and then tighten it back up. The hard part is getting it torqued. I have tightened them with my impact, but that is on my off road truck, that does not spend hours pulling heavy loads at 70 mph. It really needs to be torqued to spec. Then you should see what rolling torque for the pinion is. If you have left the diff in, then it will take more rolling torque, but you need to be in the ball park. Too loose and the pinion will walk around, too tight and the bearings will fail.



Unless somebody has been running around with the hubs locked in all the time, the front probably does not have much wear. The seal probably got dry, or like James said, somebody has got the truck stuck and got mud up in the seal or grass and did not clean it out.



Now that James and I have scared you, get to it! Get a FSM or a Dana/Spicer book for specs, directions.





Michael