
Parts needed:
Oil seal (Timken #1960 at Autozone)Brake
fluid
Differential oil
Diagram of axle assembly

Step 1: Removal of tire and brake drum
Remove the tire and the brake
drum. My drums slipped right off with no resistance.
After I removed the drum
I immediately noticed that everything was covered in gear oil. It was the
classic symptom of a blown oil seal.
Step 2: Removal of the axle
This step sounded very daunting
to me but actually turn out to be very easy.
Make sure you place an oil
pan under the axle. It gets really messy.
The first step is to detach
the parking brake cable and power brake line from the back of the plate.
The parking brake cable
can be easily detached by removing the pin in the linkage.
The brake line requires
a 10 mm wrench to unscrew the fitting. Make sure you plug the exposed end
of the brake line or all your fluid will drain out (Trust me, I know this
from experience).
Then, remove the four nuts
that secure the plate to the axle housing (See Picture 1). These require
a 14 mm wrench.
Once you have removed these
four nuts, you can pull the axle out. It may require a bit of tapping and
prying to break the plate free from the housing.
Once it is loose, carefully
pull the axle out.
NOTE: You will notice that
there is an O-ring (Picture 2) where the plate seals to the housing. I
just cleaned the surface and left mine on there since it was still in good
condition.

Step 3: Removal of old oil seal
Look inside the axle housing
and you will see the oil seal (See Picture 2).
Getting the old seal out
can be tricky. The Haynes manual recommends a special seal removing tool
or just using a screwdriver to pry it out.
I didn't have the tool so
I tried the screwdriver. It wouldn't budge. Since the seal was going to
be replaced anyway, it didn't matter if I damaged it. So, I pounded a large
flathead screwdriver into the seal itself.
After making a few holes
in the seal and bending it (be careful not to damage the inside of the
axle housing), I was able to pull it out with some pliers.
Again, be careful not to
damage anything but the seal.

Step 4: Installation of new seal
Wipe down the inside of the
axle housing to make sure there are no metal shavings or dirt in there.
Place the new seal (See
picture below) in as far as you can by hand, making sure it is a square
as possible.
This is tricky because of
the magnetic ABS sensor which gets a really good hold on the seal as you
stick it in there.
You could remove the sensor
but I was able to do it with it in place. Then, take a large socket or
something of about the same diameter as the seal and pound it into its
seat.
It will be tough but keep
pounding until it is seated. Make sure you don't tweak the seal. Once it
is in, coat the rubber part of it with some new oil.

Step 5: Finishing up
Insert the axle back into
the housing making sure not to damage the new seal.
Make sure the O-Ring is
in place.
Install everything in the
reverse order and top off your differential oil as needed.
The four nuts that secure
the plate to the housing need to be torqued to 48 ft/lbs.
You will then need to bleed
your brakes. You should only need to bleed the line that you disconnected.
Refer to Gadget's
site for a great write-up on brakes.
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