JD93TOY

OK, question for all of you out there. I have a leaky pinion seal on a 3rd member that JUST had new gears set up in it a couple weeks ago (sidenote: don't take stuff to a shop to be worked on Mondays or Fridays, people are either still asleep or rushing to get away for the weekend.). I have gone through the proper break-in period for the gears and when replacing the fluid last night, noticed how everything behind the pinion was damp from oil being sprayed every which way. I have a sneaking suspicion that the shop negated to replace the pinion seal. I call Toyota today and explain that I need a new pinion seal. The guy goes on to tell me that I should buy a new crush sleeve as once I remove the pinion flange, the current one will be no good. Everything I have read online does not mention replacing the crush sleeve while doing this seal. Is this guy blowing smoke up my ass or what? Thoughts?

JD93TOY

On another note, I do have breather extensions but have not checked to see if they are plugged. I will be doing this today when I get home. Maybe it is possible that the heat from the new gears wearing in was enough to push what oil it did out through the seal and now that they won't be generating as much heat, the leak will go away...?

Just throwing out suggestions here...

highonpottery

iTrader: (1)

technically speaking, the guy is correct that you will need new crush sleeve. some guys claim that you can do it while still on the truck in this thread: http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/toyot...placement.html


i think the best advice came from this guy in the linked thread:
"I think the correct way of doing it while the diff is left in the axle is to first measure the pinion preload with the wheels off and drums or calipers retracted. Then remove the seal and collar. Replace them and tighten the new nut to replicate the same bearing preload. If you are using the same collar, go slightly past the torque reading you had before removal. This is on a diff that is setup correctly and doesn't have toasted bearings.
Anyone that says that crank on it with a wrench or impact gun is a freakin hack. (you could do that with a solid spacer but that is still a poopy job)"

the other way that sounds like it might work is: "count thread and count # of turns to get pinion nut off and recreate those numbers with the new nut" to get the same preload on everything.


best solution would be to take the diff apart and install a solid pinion spacer and re-set the shims accordingly -- only then will you truly be able to mess with the seal without worry? too bad they didn't do this when you paid for the setup, oh well.

LMK what you decide on as this has been on my to-do list for a while now and I've been tempted to just take it in to a shop for a full rebuild with solid spacer because i don't want to deal with gear setup.

Slowey23

I have replaced the rear pinion seal twice now as the 1st time i didnt put any sealant around the outside of the seal flange so it leaked, I did it the way an old school mechanic told me (my Dad), put a scribe mark on the end of the pinion and a scribe mark on the nut and flange so they all line up, undo the nut counting the turns, pull the flange replace seal (seal between diff case and seal flange), replace flange so mark lines up with pinion mark reinstall nut counting turns and line mark on nut up with the other marks then tap the nut flange into locking groove to lock it all up. If the nut flange is in a poor state this may not work as the nut may not lock but mine was fine both times, ive done about 3000kms since with no diff issues

cman1

iTrader: (1)

just did 2 myself the same way...no issues.