Hello everyone, I have a question. I am not all smart with trucks, as I never owned one, but I'm trying to learn as much as I can when it comes to repairing...

Ok so heres the problem, I have a 2001 Dodge Dakota 4x4 Sport, and somewhere in the axle, or wheel drum I am leaking oil. It is not brake fluid, I beleive it is the gear oil. It is on the rear passanger side wheel axle, does anybody know what is wrong? Can anyone tell me what it is that could be wrong? Could there be a busted hose line, or just a seal or something?

and how much it will cost to repair it myself, or to have a mechanic repair it? I'm going to try to repair it myself, but I'm not sure what is wrong with it at this point. I would like to repair it myself befor taking her into the mechanics....

THANKSS

 

Does anybody else have the same problem?

 

sounds like the axle seal is bad depending on how mechanically inclined you are it might be better to take it to a shop. to repair you need to get in to the diff and take out the spider gears to get the axel snap ring out to pull the shaft out to replace the seal/bearing and check the shaft to make sure its not damaged
in conclusion probably easier to have a shop do it and if you wanted to put bigger gears in nows the time
dont forget to clean the rear shoes real good or replace them if to saturated in oil

 

Yup, sounds like a seal...Before I re-did my entire 8.25 rearend this past summer, thats where it started with my dakota, but I decided not to mess with the rearend, and I do almost everything else to the Dakota...I just bought my own Timken brand bearings & seals, cause I wasnt just gonna replace one seal that was bad without replacing both seals & bearings while they were at it, it was just more cost effective.

 

The spiders don't need to come out, just the carrier pin.

The procedure is:

1)Raise vehicle and remove rear wheels and drums

2) Remove differential cover

3) Remove carrier pin retaining bolt (don't remember if they're 3/8" or 10mm, but it's the only one, so not much to confuse there) and slide the carrier pin out

4) push axle shafts in toward center and remove the retaining clips

5) Slide axle shafts out

6) pry out old seal, drive in new one

7) reassemble in reverse order.

Now, you do need to do as Pwall said and make sure the axle shaft is not damaged. A very slight groove where the seal rides is normal, but anything more than about 0.003" deep is cause for concern. If there is any damage where the bearings ride, you'll need to either install an axle saver bearing (comes with seal), or get a new shaft and conventional bearing.

Before installing the new seal, lightly coat the spring on the inside of the seal lip with bearing grease. This will help keep the spring from popping out while you're driving the seal and inserting the axle shaft. No spring=leak.

They're not hard to do, but if you aren't mechanically inclined, I'd get a friend who is and has some experience, or pay to have it done. Botch the job, you could smoke the rear end, and they ain't cheap.

 

funny this topic came up because I have concluded today why I'm getting squeaks while driving is because my seal is bad. I'm getting gear oil all over the brakes. But yea, getting the axle out isn't really hard.