Pinion Seal Replacement
Now and again you might have to replace the seal on your differential. You will have to replace this fairly quickly if the seal is leaking bad. In the application shown and described in this write up we used a GM 14 Bolt. Some situations may vary for different applications but this will give you the general idea how easy it is to replace this. You don’t need a large amount of tools to do the job, but some mechanic shops may tell you that you require a couple specific tools to do the job when in fact they are cheap and easily accessible.
Tools Required
1.) Gear Puller
2.) 1.5” Socket for Pinion Nut
3.) RTV – High Temp Silicon Gasket Maker.
4.) Hammer & Flat head screwdriver
First you will need to remove the driveshaft. Once removed,
you will need to use the 1.5 Inch socket to remove the pinion nut. When
you have successfully removed the nut & Washer your next step you
can use a gear puller as shown in Fig 1.1 This should not be hard to remove
and should come off fairly easy as the Yoke will just need to be broken
free from the spline on the pinion as shown in Fig 1.2 the two arms of
the puller were only needed to crack the yoke off the spline & in
Fig 1.3 its removed
 Fig 1.1 |
 Fig 1.2 |
 Fig 1.3 |
Now you are ready to clean off all of the surfaces of the shaft that contact the seal. Light sand paper can be used to make sure there are no burns left from the rust. Once you have cleaned off all the debris you are ready to install the sleeve. You can rub some RTV (Fig 1.4) on the sleeve prior to installation (if desired to help seal the sleeve Fig 1.4) and using the tool that is provided with the sleeve to lightly hammer the seal onto the Yoke (Fig 1.5 & 1.6)
 Fig 1.4 |
 Fig 1.5 |
 Fig 1.6 |
 Fig 1.7 |
 Fig 1.8 |
 Fig 1.9 |
As shown in Fig 1.7
the complete Yoke ready for re-installation. Now that you are ready you
will need to remove the seal from the pinion. You can use a big screw
driver as shown in Fig 1.8 or a seal puller but to be honest it’s
pretty easy to just pry on it with this or a pair of needle nose vise
grips to pry the seal from the pinion housing. In Fig 1.9 the seal is
removed and you now will need to clean up where the seal gets inserted
into (Fig 2.0) similar to what you did when you had to clean off the Yoke
shaft to fit the sleeve back on. Take care to make sure that all debris
is once again removed so that you have a clean surface to put the seal
back into. You can lightly tap the seal into the pinion using a hammer
(Fig 2.1) but be careful not to damage the outer ring. Once installed
the seal should be tight and level against the pinion housing as shown
in Fig 2.2
 Fig 2.0 |
 Fig 2.1 |
 Fig 2.2 |
Now its just the replacement of the Yoke onto the pinion as shown below in Fig 2.3. You can lightly tap this with the hammer to guide the yoke fully onto the spline. Now its time for your Washer and Pinion Nut to be replaced and torque to the specified Owners manual (65 lbs of Torque)
 Fig 2.3 |
 Fig 2.4 |
Replace the driveshaft and be sure to re-grease the U-Joints (If applicable)
in this replacement the U-Joints did not require to be changed as they
were previously done weeks prior. However if you have it all apart this
would be the time to replace those U-joints to avoid having to take it
all apart again. In most cases the reason the seal goes is due to extended
intervals for U-joint replacements.
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