Pinion seal?

[bluex]

I'm losing gear oil out the front of the diff. I'm assuming that its from the seal on the pinion shaft? Can I change this without removing the pinion? If I have to go that far I might as well go ahead and swap out my gears. I helped my stepdad make a run to the landfill and by the time I got home I'd lost all the fluid. It just started making a awful noise on deceleration/coasting. As long as I was on the gas it was ok.

I cant win with this truck, I was trying to keep it torqued up to keep the gears engaged while I was slowing down and wound up flooding it majorly to the point that the plugs were full of gas when I took them out. I thought I had screwed the carb, but after about 3 hrs. it fired up and I drove it back home. I think that is going to be ok, but I need to get the rear fixed now before I can drive it anymore.

[RockHQ]

If it's already making a noise, you're too late. Now's a good time to rebuild the axle with better gears. You can replace the pinion seal without removing the pinion, but it'd be a waste of time&money IMO. Get a master rebuild kit from a reliable source (richmond, superior etc) and do it right.

[plumbcut]

I dunno. Throw some Lucas in that diff with a new pinion seal and maybe you can get a few miles out of it The seal is easy to change. Mark the pinion nut's location with the pinion shaft before you break it loose, then remove it and the yoke and the seal should be right there. pry it out, install the new one and when you reinstall that nut, bring it right back to where it was, plus just a hair more and you're good to go.

pc

[bluex]

Thanks guys, I'm gonna have to try and change it b/c I dont have the money right now to do the complete rebuild like I want too. I'm going to talk to a guy at work tomorrow to see about a 3.73 rear he said he had and if its for sale. If I can do that I'll just swap the whole rears. Otherwise I'm gonna just change the seal and hope I didnt tear it up too bad. I'm gonna pop the cover and check everything out too.

[jimfulco]

Originally Posted by bluex

a awful noise on deceleration/coasting.

You mean just howling or terrible popping & crashing noises? My '79 did the latter (only when decelerating) when the pinion nut came undone. I made it home (~70 miles), but the nut fell out when I backed into my driveway. The innards were pretty torn up, so I put another rear end in it.

[bluex]

Just a howling noise, no popping or anything. I was planning on popping the cover today to check everything, but it looks like its gonna be steady rain the next few days complements of Frances.