my rear differential has been leaking really bad right where the drive shaft comes into to it for the last couple weeks. there is a whining in the rearend and there is also a slip/hesitation inbetween speeds of 40-50 mph. i have been keeping 85W gear oil in it constantly, every week it goes almost dry so i been staying up on it. i'm guessing the seal is bad at the driveshaft and i'm pretty sure its an easy job(or i'm hoping). any advice would be helpful, i need to get it taken care of becuz its my work vehicle but i cant necesarilly afford to put it in a shop.....thanks everyone for your help.

 

Pinion seal is toast. Probably because of a bad bearing. (the whining noise...) Grab the service manual from the FAQ section here, and the procedure for replacing the seal/bearing is in there. If you haven't done this kind of thing before, might be better to take it to a shop......

 

once i get going thru this site i'll be able to navigate more....thanks for your help.

 

Just hope that you didnt completely destroy the rear. I would have stopped driving it when i noticed it was leaking bad enough to be empty. I know how much it cost to get the rear axle completely rebuilt and it still stings to think about it. Just my 2 cents though

 

I did the rear pinion seal in my '72, and it was cake. But if your bearing is toast, I have no advise for that other than that toast and cake don't really taste very good together.

 

Lol

But cold beer goes great with anything. Even screwed up differentials

 

Need a lotta beer for a screwed up diff though.....

 

today is the day that i'm gonna drop the drive shaft, take off the yoke and the pumpkin cover, pop out the outer seal (i did buy a new one) and at least inspect everything as best as i can. lookin at the manual that i downloaded from the FAQ (thanx HEYYOU), i'm at least going to replace the outer bearing and seal and see what happens. i'll let you know how it turned out.

 

Beer and home made ice cream do NOT go well together!!
Especially when you consume large quantities of each.

 

take a good close look at the bearing race before you stuff a new bearing in there.... Getting them fellers out can be fun.