Rear pinion bearing & seal HELP!
 

So i've tried doing some research on replacing these two parts and I am still left wondering if I should handle it myself or fork out the big bucks to have someone else do it right the first time.

the chilton manual seems a little broad, and also says the entire driveshaft needs to come out?

and ive heard everything online from "5 minutes easy as cake" to "repair job from he**"

if anyone has any info that could help me i'd really appreciate it. I just spent Enough having the entire brakes, ball joints, and clutch done :/

yours leaking? if you can figure out how to fix it, let me know. mine leaks really bad and i need to replace mine

its really easy i just replaced my seal. all you have to do is drain the fluid out of your rear differentail. remove the drive shaft where it connects to your rear axle 4 bolts are holding it on. then there will be a nut (i forgot what size) that you take off and the cover part comes off. then i used a pry bar to get the seal off. once the seal comes off you will see your bearing. the reverse the process.

It's not that easy, or at least sometimes is not. If you don't retorque that pinion nut right it can fry your bearings. there's also the crush sleeve to worry about.
The right way is to pull the carrier, remove pinion, get a new crush sleeve, reassemble and crush the sleeve until you get to 18-25 inlbs (IIRC) for used bearings. It's not bad if you have time and the right tools.

I'm pulling my wrecked 8.8 soon and will replace/rebuild that seal so I could do a write up. Not going to happen until school is out though, two weeks or so.

theres the real side of it. and if you dont crush the crush sleeveproperly and reset the pinion correctly, your gears will be shot also.

See what I mean, some say its easy others say not!

it is easier than what they are sayin it is.
when you torque the pinion nut it crushes sleeve and sets everything right. i didn't replace my bearing and all that i just replaced my pinion seal bc it was leaking.

when you do this without removing the pinion, do it as follows. im pretty sure ive done this once or twice [/sarcasm]

-mark driveshaft orientation with pinion flange
-remove the 4 12mm 12pt driveshaft bolts
-tap the driveshaft off the pinion
DO NOT ROTATE THE PINION
-measure the depth of threads protruding from the nut with the depth end of a vernier caliper and mark the nut orientation on the pinion flange
-mark the pinion flage orientation on the diff housing
-zip the pinion nut off (1 1/4 i think)
-remove the seal
-remove the pinion bearing if you want to replace it (theres another one on the inside of the pinion so it really doesnt make much sense to do one)
-remove the bearing race (if you can)
-install the new pinion bearing race
-install the new pinion bearing
-WITH A SEAL DRIVER install the new pinion seal
-install flange with mark on diff and mark on flange lined up
-install nut and tighten until depth and nut orientation is correct (i always go about 1/16 turn more)
-reinstall driveshaft after cleaning both flanges thoroughly
-refill diff

do exactly what Toreador4x4 said to do. i did it like others said, ruined all my bearings and carrier. got to college, i was showed the right way, and its been good ever since.

:biggthump

I agree with Justin. Use that process.

There's the easy way, then the right way. If you do not get that crush sleeve back to where it was, there is a good chance of over or undertorqueing that pinion bearing preload. Good luck if you go that route.....

Just a heads up of the very good possiblilty of messing up the rear if you do not do it the book way. I'm one that is all for easy fixes, but this one deals with 18 inlbs...that's not a whole lot of room for error.

this is one of those jobs ive decided its worth paying someone else to do, rather than screw up more stuff

I still havent moved on this project.. If im hearing all kinds of noise from the driveline area and leaking from the pinion seal, would that imply that the pinion bearing is toast?? or is something else possibly making noise? carrier?

you need to get that fixed before you need to start replacing stuff, even though it already sounds like you have procrastinated too long. when the pinion seal leaks, the fluid drains below the pinion bearing starving it of oil. fill it back up.

Yup, seems you may be in need of a rebuild now. Your bearings going may have been the cause of the seal going out even. When you pull the seal if you see any galling or marking of the bearings/race rebuild.
When I did my first seal I though I could get away with not replacing the bearings (they had a little galling). Nope, sounded like crickets in the rear withing 100 miles.:headache:

I paid someone to replace my front one. I didnt want to under torque something and then have it fall apart while im doing 75 on the freeway. I'll do everything else myself but I didnt feel like messing with that.

if you are going to delay longer you might as well order a rebuild kit or a junkyard axle. when a pinion seal starts leaking, you have a time window as to when you can do it before something fails. i think you are past that window now.

mine has started to seep after the dunes and giving the diff a good dose of water and sand, i noticed it yesterday, and i will replace it tomorrow. i will even do a write up for you if my one without pics wasnt good enough

I'm not sure how you trashed your seals Justin, but that sucks.

Ive always done it the half assed way and its worked out fine for me. But I dont over TQ that pinion nut you have to get it in the right spot. (i just guess though)LOL

Ive rebuilt/reassembled/gear changed a ton of axles (with some help) so my point of view might not be that good. All else fails do what Justin says!

both times i have been there i have trashed seals, last year was front outer axle seals and this year was rear pinion seal, oh well...i change the fluid anyway when i get home to make sure that there isnt any water in it, and my aluminum diff cover is leaking, so it will reside in the garbage from now on

dude
https://www.ranger-forums.com/forum2...nion-seal.html
just do it, it took me and tyler 20 mins to do it and make the write-up at the same time

steel ftw.

btw did you have any water in it? i dont usually check mine much ever. LOL

no water this time, last time i had alot of water in it though

My breather hose was flopping around and I didn't have any water in mine. You're probably ok but you went through a lot deeper stuff that we did.

my breathers are up pretty high but ive still seen it get in.