I have a rear pinion seal leak. I have searched this and came up with a couple of possible problems (loose nut or the seal just blew). I haven't diagnosed it myself yet but wanted to know what kinda job I will have to do with this.

Will I have to remove the pinion gear in order to change the seal? I guess if I have to remove the pinion I will have to correctly set up the gears.

I don't know how to setup gears and didn't set the gears up in my axle (4.56's) I bought the axle with them in it and setup already. So am I basically stuck sending my truck to a mechanic or can I do this without messing with the setup of the gears.

 

you dont need to pull the ring or pinion. heck you dont even have to take the cover off.


drop the driveshaft
hit the pinion nut with an impact
take the yoke off
pop the seal out
put in new seal
put the yoke back on
tighten the pinion nut back on to the point where the yoke does not have any play but it still spins like it did before you took it apart. (there is some type of ft lbs on this but idk what it is)

 

I changed mine out then a month later it started leaking again.

 

It can be done that way but it's iffy because of the crush sleeve. That's whay I hate about the 8.8.

Bryan, you also might want to make sure you don't see any seepage at your axle seals at the far ends of the axle tubes. If you do, it could be a sign of a plugged vent though the vents have pretty large bores on 8.8's so it's usually not a problem.

Also, if you are damaging the pinion seal because the nut is loose, you can determine that by just taking off the driveshaft at the pinion checking for lateral and radial play. Obviously alway some rotational play, but that's not what you're looking for. If you can shake that thing and feel play, somethings not right.

Chock your front wheels as a little bird told me you don't have a working parking brake right now...