I figure cuz its clearly leaking from the pinion seal. Then its running down the back of the diff and making it look like the diff cover seal is bad

 

thats pinion seal alllll the friggin way, if it was leaking form the front you wouldnt have a trail of oil coming from the pinion..gravity pulls down not up and theres no where else tha oil could be coming from, the diff sits off to the left so nothing should be leaking from up above unless its your rocker covers but even then the oil dries up on all the crap and dirt there before it has time to reach the diff. When you put the pinion nut back on you HAVE TO DO A ROTATIONAL TORQUE on it...just stressing the importance...lol after you tighten down the nut pull on the yoke back and forth and see how much play you have, tighten it down the impact gun, once you cant pull back and forth you do a rotational torque reading by puttin a flex type torque wrench on it and turn clockwise and check the reading. The pinion has to be torqued down to 25 INCH POUNDS. if you still feel a bit of movement in the pinion back and forth then torque it down 5 inch pounds more, if still play then ur sol cuz u gotta replace the crush washer. Thats All.

 

ftw

 

i use RTV red.. dont matter

but really... **** flows down not up. its the pinion or something higher

 

so you're telling me that oil will flow forward going down the highway at any speed?


if you look at his pics real closely you'll see that there is no oil being slung in the vicinity of the pinion seal...


the two leaks look alot alike...only difference is when it's the front diff leaking the fluid will flow backwards to the pinion seal cup due to the force of highway speeds...

when the pinion seal is leaking it will sling oil all over the place underneath your truck.

i know because me and soccerjohn re-sealed my front diff not 2 months ago and underneath my truck looked exactly like Steve's does.

RIGHT NOW, at this very moment, i have a blown front pinion seal! there is oil all over the place underneath my truck!

and what you were saying about gravity, does hold true, when you're not moving! when you're going down the highway, i'm pretty sure that the force of the wind is going to override how a fluid acts when it's in a static environment.

 

it was the pinion seal i replaced it and its not leaking now

 

what you said is partially true but not enough to hold water. What im trying to say is that when you drive at highway speeds the oil isnt sticky enough to stay on the differential and "flow backwards" at highway speed oil will fly right off the diff unless its a suppper slow leak that drips a drop once every three weeks. To accumulate oil around the pinion yoke like in DUB's picture would have taken a while to leave such a mark. Theres not enough drag i guess?? to hold the oil to diff and cause it to flow backwards, i can see the wind blwing it half way up the diff the most and then it just flies off onto the road or wherever it pleases. Looking at DUB's picture he would have to have been pissing fluid in order to flow back that far and leave a stain AROUND the pinion yoke. His leak wasnt a slow one but fast enough to cause some damage have he had left it alone and done nothing. My other question is if it was leaking as you have described how come there wasnt oil on the driveshaft and how come there wasnt a thicker line of oil or any sign of splattering? The only place that looks like the oil hit was around the starter and thats about it. But anyways he said he fixed it and it was the pinion seal so theres no point of me going on. Thats all lol.

 

glad you got it fixed steve...even if i was wrong....**** happens...

 

the **** started leaking last saturday i didnt have the driveshaft in it at the time because i was trying to isolate a noise..i put the shaft back in sunday then pulled right back out tuesday to replace the seal....i dont drive the truck durning the week so most of the oil was dripped onto my porch and wasnt splattered much from driving...

 

yea, and just to make sure i wasnt trying to be a dick with you and trying to put you down or anything at all, its just when theres somthing that doesnt make sense i will get to the bottom of it....

 

oh ok....did u ever find the noise?

 

it shows it coming out the pinion seal..

 

^....lol....^

 

no like when i go from park to drive or reverse and still on the brake i get this clicking noise in the frontend and cannot locate it and thats with or wothout the driveshaft..i dont know if its the front differential or something in the tranny

 

i know that zach....not to be a smartass, but i've torn enough up on my truck...

the biggest reason i was swearing by the front diff cover seal leaking is two reasons...

1. ford has a note on that that i found after i resealed mine. the sealant was being applied too thinly at the bottom for about 7 months of production time and was falling off causing a leak.

2. i replaced my pinion seal when i found the first leak. and mine looked exactly like Stevens did. Anyways, 25 miles after the new seal was replaced there was fluid still showing up. Long story short i resealed the front diff and what do you know, no more leak.


typically when the pinion seal goes, it sling oil all over the place. especially down the driveshaft. when the front diff seal leaks it usually just slides down the bottom of the casing then hits the seal cup and stops there...which in turn makes it look like a pinion seal leak....

and i'm not trying to be an *** when i say this...i'm just burnt out on fixing my damned front end! when i get it fixed this time, i'll be up to 2 pinion seals, a reseal on the cover, right side CV axle seal, LCA ball joint, upper tie rod, and a lot of blood, sweat and tears!


but regardless of any of this sidebar chatter, Steve's truck is good to go and this was his thread, so HOORAY for that and give me a beer!

 

im just gonna take a stab and say hubs, donno if you have 4wd or not but if you it could be the hubs. Thats was the problem with mine, everyonce in a while i would get this clickiting noise and found out the hub was pooched....just an idea.

 

x3