Diff fluid by front tire
 

I just recently changed out my u joint on the axle shaft on the drivers side of my 97 Dodge 1500 and when i woke up this morning, there was a puddle of diff fluid on the ground. The fluid was coming out of the axle... Any ideas on how hard it will be to replace whatever broke?

thanks

Mines the same way, so i will be watching this one closely. Cept i havent changed my U joints out yet, cant get hub nuts off.....

mine does too. started after i changed my brakes.

no problem at all to change those silly little $10 oil seals, once you take the whole damn front end apart.

if its not leaking really really bad, i'd just add oil to keep it near full.
if you underfill it just a little bit, it won't leak as bad.

http://www.pavementsucks.com/tech/hub.php
http://www.pavementsucks.com/tech/axleseal.php

I got everything apart but i can not pop the carrier out!! Help pleaseee

You might have to use a pry bar to ease it out but watch for shims on either side of the carrier. Make sure you don't intermix the shims when putting it back in. They are detrimental in having the correct gear mesh.

This may sound like a dumb question but just asking. Do you have the inter shaft out of the passenger side.? if not then the carrier will not come out.

Yeah didn't think of that. Very true. You will never get it out with that shaft in there.lol.

I pulled apart both sides and pulled out both shafts. is the inner shaft about 3ft long and has the u-joint on it because if so i got that one out.

Yep that's it. Sounds like your back to the prybar. Just take your time and it should come out pretty easy. Wait did you take the bearing caps off on either side of the diff. If not then you still won't get it out without taking them off.

Bearing caps? If your talking about the 4 bolts that hold in the races then I did. the whole carrier has play up and down and front to back but it just wont budge past that. There is something holding it still

Put a pry bar behind it and put pressure on it. It will come out. You might have a bent shim or something holding it. A friend to catch the carrier when it pops free is a good idea.

It seems like something is still holding it back. Because it will move about 2 inches and then it will catch. Is there any possible way the pinion is holding it back or just the bearing races or shims?

If the pinion is holding it you have more serious problems. I would tend to think that it is just the pressure of the shims against the side of the case holding it in. If you put pressure on the back of the carrier with the pry bar it should pop out. Try pulling it forward those few inches and see if you can turn the carrier some to aid in removal.

Ok sounds good. I have been going at this for two days now so maybe tomorrow will be the day it will pop out. Should i rebuild the thing now after i beat the crap out of it?

How do you mean you beat the crap out of it? I hope you weren't hammering on the carrier as they are cast and can crack from that kind of force. :o Just take your time and ease it out. If you can post a pic as to what you have infront of you I might be able to see if there is anything else hanging you up but it sounds free and is just hung up by the shims and such.

Oh I forgot to mention to take your shim packs one side at a time and clean them off real good before reinstalling them just don't mess up which side is which or your gear mesh and side play will be all messed up. Your too far away or I would lend a hand and have you up and running in a few hours. If you don't damage the bearings or shims you don't need to rebuild anything.

I would probablly like to just throw some new bearings in there. Just so i feel safe. Also should i keep it in 4x4 or 2 wheel.

To get the carrier out put it in 2 wheel so the pinion can rotate. if your gonna put new bearings on it take it to a shop to have the old ones pressed off and new ones pressed on. Much easier to let them do it for the couple of bucks it will cost ya. One less headache to deal with.:D

Just so i am understanding this right. You pulled both shafts outa the passenger side? you have a outer shaft that goes into you hub. attached to that is a u-joint to the inner shaft. You have to take you CAD unit off to get to your intermediate shaft. That shaft connects with the CAD collar when you want 4x4. Just checking is all.

Here are pictures of the two shafts a pulled out and what the case and carrier looks like so far. The whole carrier moves up/down and back and forth a few inches but it seems like the drivers side of it sticks out further.

Attachment 106024
Attachment 106025
Attachment 106026
Attachment 106027

just double checking kraiger's question... did you slide the passenger side intermediate shaft out of the diff ?

What would that be. The first shaft picture is the passenger and the second picture is the drivers one. Is there one more shaft?!

yes. there are 2 pieces on the passenger side, with a coupler at the cad. cad is the rectangular box on the back side of passenger side axle housing.

there is an outer, and an inner. you've removed the outer. unless you've pulled it out, the inner lurks inside on the passenger side.

Ok if i forgot this inner one then it should pop out. Because something is really holding it up on that passenger side. So what do i have to do to take out this inner..


Thanks

Remove the CAD from the back of the axle and slide the intermediate axle toward the end of the axle. Sorry man I didn't realize you didn't have that shaft out too. My bad. When you get that shaft out of the way it will probably fall out on you.lol. Sorry again for holdin you up on makin progress.

no personal experience on removing the inner axle half.
the service manual is very vague. it implies that it simply slides out.

AXLE SHAFTS - INTERMEDIATE
REMOVAL
(1) Remove vacuum shift motor housing.
(2) Remove outer axle shaft.
(3) Remove inner axle shaft seal from shift motor
housing with a long drift or punch. Be careful not to
damage housing.
(4) Remove intermediate axle shaft and shift collar.
(5) Remove intermediate axle shaft bearing (Fig.
23).

Yep that pretty much says it all in a hand basket.

Yup that inter shaft is holding you up. Once you get that out the carrier will just fall right out. I know because i did the same thing when i did a dodge axle for the first time lol. But yea this is just what i like to do. since you have the axle appart. I like to replace the seal in the CAD area as well. It the passenger side axle seal. You need a long peace a pipe to do it and a seal installer. Also when you put you shafts back in. BE very carefull. You dont want to push the seal in. Also something ive learend.lol. Once what to help is to load the seal with grease so that little spring in the seal does not pop out. Good luck let us know how it turns out.

Yea i knew something was holding me up! ok well out of the 4 bolts on that housing, 2 snapped the heads off... i figured because they were all rusted and carroded. Ill have to figure out what to do to get them off.

i knew this was coming next. those are dinky little bolts.
just drill out the centers a little (or a lot) and hit em with an ease out.

ok so i got the vacuum switch housing off and I can see the inner shaft. The darn thing won't slide out and there isn't enough room to get a good grip on it, what should i try next? the only thing I can think of is the carrier isn't aligned.

Nevermind i got it out FINALLY! The carrier popped out and now its time to start and fix everything. My question is when I pulled off the housing motor, a bunch of fluid spilled out. Do i have to fill it somewhere or is that from the housing of the diff?

Fluid as in gear oil you mean right? If so then you are fine just make sure when you refill the diff that you wait to put the plug back in and give it a few to work it's way into the axle housings and keep adding till it is full. Try to be on as level of ground as possible when filling the diff.

nothing special on the oil in the cad. its just diff oil from the pumpkin that slings out into the axle tube on the passenger side. the oil seal is on the outside edge of the CAD opening.

your next challenge will be to replace that passenger side seal. see the pavement article for his all-thread tool, or buy the expensive one.

also - take a look at the bearing on the inside edge of the cad and the bushing on the outside edge. replace if necessary.

Ok so i finally got around with taking the bearings off the side of the carrier. I found out that there are shims/spacers. Can I just slap the new bearings on the old spacers or do i have to re space the bearings?!

You should be pretty close with those shims that are on there now. they are there to set the gear mesh from ring to pinion. Keep each side seperate from the other and do not mix up sides. Clean one set of shims at a time and clean the carrier good then reinstall the shims per side and install bearing then do the same to the other side. If you don't have marking paint you can use a little automotive paint that comes in a spray can and spray some into a small cup and take a brush and paint it on the ring gear in a small spot and rotate the ring and pinion and see if the mesh looks centered in the gears. This is the part that is tricky to get right. If you don't feel comfortable in whether or not it looks right take a pic of it after reinstalling the carrier and torquing the caps back down and having applied the paint and rotated the assembly and we can tell you if it looks right. In most cases you should be darn near close to set if you put the new bearings back on correctly and don't over press the bearings when installing them.

Ok thank you so much. i kept everything so I know which shims go on what side. I work at a machine shop so i can measure each shims and make sure everything is good. I will let you know how everything turns out. Thank you once again.