I'm trying to help out a friend of mine. He has an '88 150 4x4, 318, 4 speed. The left front axle shaft seal has started leaking fairly badly out the diff housing tube. I think that it is a Dana 44 with the vacuum disconnect. The U-joints, bearings, etc. are all in good condition.

How nasty is it to change the axle shaft seal? Going back to my Jeep mechanicing days, the whole diff had to be disassembled and the carrier removed to change the seal. Is that what I'm looking at having to do for this one? Yuck!

 

My friend just replaced these on my truck while I was on holidays, for the seal on the passenger side of the truck you have to take the carrier out, he did a bunch of work to my front end but would have had to order a new seal for the drivers side so he re-used the old one which now leaks... and he tells me we just have to take the axle shaft out to fix it he seams to think its not as hard or time consuming as the other side.