Duartizzle

My front diff is leaking around the driveshaft area. I am assuming it is the pinion seal. I read some stuff on here on how to replace the seal itself. But to get to that seal is what I am a little confused on. Do I just need to take off those 6 bolts that hold the driveshaft on and it will drop down allowing me access to the pinion seal?

eric-the-red

Which seal, the side of the diff or the rear. Either way you have to remove either the driveshaft or the CV axle, then remove the pinion nut, remove the pinion and then you can get to the seal.

Duartizzle

It's the one of the side of the diff. But what I am asking is, to get to that do I just undo those 6 bolts and the driveshaft will simply drop down allowing me enough room to replace the seal?

eric-the-red

It's not quite that easy, those bolts are actually studs which are pressed into the flange. There's not usually enough room to get the axle out without undoing the lower ball joint. If you look under the outer end of the lower control arm there are 4 bolts attaching the ball joint. Remove them, seperate the ball joint and pull the bottom of the hub outwards. Then you should have enough room to get the axle off the studs.

Give it a try with just unbolting the axle first, but that's what I had to do on mine.