Hey everybody I am new to thid forum and have gotten alot of great tips and advice looking through your threads. I have a 97 1500 extended cab 31.5" tires 4" lift I love my truck! Having a rear diff issue. fluid is pouring out where it meets the drive shaft...so now I am off to search those threads.
I wanted to again thank all of you for your advice!!!

 

Welcome to DodgeForum!!

Sounds like a bad pinion seal. Should be very cheap and easy to replace. Remove the driveshaft from the yoke, remove the pinion nut and slide the yoke off, replace the seal, grease the seal, slide the yoke back on, put the pinion nut back on with lots of threadlock and reinstall the driveshaft.

Note... If you have the Corp. 9.25" diff, the pinion nut gets tightened down to 210 ft*lbs... and you need to make sure that is very accurate!!!!

 

^+1 on the pinion seal and Welcome to Dodge Forum.

 

Thanks for the advice guys, this will be Sundays project for me lol, and thanks for the welcome

 

The pinion nut is tuff to get off by your self. Me and a friend couldn't even do it due to the sponge(feel) in the shafts. I was replacing mine on a
Dana 70. I ended up borrowing a large electric impact that knocked it right off. Also check if there is too much play in forward/backward movement in the pinion shaft itself before installing the new seal. If there is, you need to replace some bearings and races as well, this is not an easy task if your not experienced.

 

thanks for the advice KY, Well I have succesfully never paid anyone to work on my cars or trucks in the last 14 years when a mechanic bent me over on installing an idler arm. I do have an electric impact so I will give that a try if the damn thing gives me too much trouble. And I have done transmission swaps all the way up to rewiring a expedition from hell.

 

Doesn't the crush sleeve go between the yoke and the front bearing? And don't you need to replace it when you remove the nut?
That's a Ford for ya. I've heard of a few Ford wiring nightmares. I hated Ford when I put a new radio in my 89 Thunderbird because they had so many unique wire colors. It was actually a charging issue that did that car in. I miss that car.

 

No. The crush sleeve goes between the front and rear pinion bearings and is there to keep lateral forces from collapsing the bearings. The only time you ever need to replace a crush sleeve is if you replace the pinion bearings, replace the gears, or tighten the nut too far and crush the sleeve too much. Basically, once crushed properly, a crush sleeve fits the specific set of gears and bearings and as long as neither are replaced, will still fit it as long as you torque the nut down properly. Thats why the torque specs on that nut need to be so specific!

 

Gotcha. I'm a little ignorant in the way of differentials, but that is soon to change when I order my new gears.

 

Ya don't they charge some of their vehicles chassis with a positive charge so you can't install aftermarket headunits and car audio crap into the vehicle without some problems?