Oh the joys of Dodge ownership. Am I correct at guessing that there is a second seal behind the hub that has crapped the bed? I started investigating what I thought was a blown wheel cylinder (wet wheel well) and what I found was this mess. Chunks of oil-soaked sludge is packed into the springs and pads. It's a disgrace. I don't know what in the world to do...

 

yes, there is a seal tucked in behind there somewhere.

i bet the brakes sucked too.

 

THAT is pretty ugly! At least there was oil in the differential....but in the brakes...not so good! I think I would tear down and replace seals on both sides.

Parts manual will give you a good breakdown. Wonder if bearing is so bad that it wollered (is that spelled correctly?) out the seal.

 

Pull the axle (8 inner bolts.) inside there, you will find a big nut or two, pull it (them?) off as well, and the hub will slide right off. Seal is on the back side, and will pop out fairly easy with a screwdriver. (use a long one....)

inspect the bearings, and see what they look like. If you don't like 'em, replace 'em.

You MUST replace the brake shoes. They are oil soaked, and will NEVER work the way they should. Easiest time to do that is with the hub off.

Wear clothes you don't care about. You will STINK by the time you are done, and there is the real possibility, your wife won't let you in the house.

 

do NOT even go in the house with those clothes on. remove them while outside and either throw them away or stick them straight in the wash with some degreaser.

and don't think about sitting in your favorite chair....

the smell of gear oil can linger for a very long time.


look for a National brand or napa/SKF seal and avoid timken seals. timken bearings are great, but i've had nothing but problems with their seals.

 

Timken has been bought out and the owners have been in the process of closing up thier factories and selling crap from various overseas manufacturers under license to use the timken name on them... (just like honeywell did with autolite and fram)
a local race shop told me they used there bearing in thier race car up until about three years ago when the quality decreased dramatically and they failed constantly.. gotta love free trade and marketing manipulation...

 

Is there a write up on this anywhere?

 

Service manual..... grab the 01 version. That's gonna be closest to your truck. (in the faq section)

 

Would a repair bearing have to be custom ordered depending on how badly grooved the shaft is?

 

The axle shaft doesn't support any weight. (full-floating rear.) There is a race pressed into the hub (actually, there's two... inner and outer....) the smaller bearing race rides on the spindle that bolts to the housing. The inner part of the bearing 'shouldn't'..... be spinning at all. Just the tapered rollers in between inner and outer races. If something seized up, you can just replace the spindle, and bearings, and should be golden.