vegascoug

So here goes my best attempt at this...my rear diffential appears to be leaking. Wet/oily mud around the differential...not coming from the fill plug, surrounds the drain plug but it's also higher than that so I don't think it's from that. It appears to be coming from the seal between the differential (rear axle) and the drive line. A cirlcle of 12 size bolts connects the drive line to the differential, well by my best description anyway.

The question is what sort of issue am I looking at...looks major to me. I was in the process of replacing the axle seal on the drivers side when I noticed it...so now I am wondering if I need a shop involved or if I can replace this gasket as well.

Any ideas? Scale of 1 to 10...1 being something my dog could probably do and 10 being one of those "why in the hell did I start this project" and new curse words are created.

Thanks folks!

Mike

eddieleephd

depends on you most of us just pull the third and replace the gasket.
replace all seals while you are there. if you were messing withe actual gears I would say to take the third to a shop but not the gasket.

INFINITY

so you are talking about the pinion seal?
if that is the case not bad at all. just make sure they give you the right one. and grease the seal rubber lip when you install it. then re tighten the pinion nut to about the same place and it should be good. also if you have a wheel seal that went out is your breather vent plugged? if it is that will cause the gear oil to seep out of the seals when it heats up. not any harder than the wheel seal

raydouble

Make sure there isn't any play at the companion flange (where the driveline meets differential) that took out the seal. Play at flange should be non-existent.

http://www.ncttora.com/fsm/1996/SIL/...rdfos/comp.pdf

http://www.ncttora.com/fsm/1996/SIL/...rdfos/repl.pdf

Entire 96-02 manual
http://www.ncttora.com/fsm/1996/SIL/fsm/repair.html