I am in the midst of replacing my axle shaft seals and rebuilding my front axle. Well it is actually a spare front axle i have had laying around/trying to sell but the time has come and my truck needs it. Once I was finally able to remove everything i began cleaning an inspecting and i found that an orange o-ring on the passenger side of the diff where the carrier bearing meets the axle tube appears to be torn up.

Here are a few pictures of what i am talking about, click on the link it is my dropbox, pictures should come up automatically.

http://db.tt/GuX4cAxd
http://db.tt/FcDUKwiy

so my question is, should i be concerned about this? and what can i do to remedy this. Since that is not the seal i am replacing, and it doesn't appears that is a seal i can replace.

Thanks Guys.

 

i think that's the sealant from where the axles tubes are pressed/welded/whatever into the diff housing.

so no, no concern.

 

awesome, that was kinda my thought. but didn't wanna get all back together and have an issue. I may have done that when pulling the carrier gear. It was a real PITA to get it out.

thanks DH

 

ran into a problem installing my ne4w ball joints. the lower ball joint wont allow me to tighten the nut. the hole shaft inside ball joint just spins. i cant loosen it or tighten it. any advice on what to do? is the new ball joint bad?

 

Place a jack under that lower ball joint and jack it up to put some weight on the joint to wedge it into the knuckle. This should be enough force on the lower ball joint to allow the stud not to turn and allow you to tighten the nut on that lower ball joint. Just rebuilt my front end and ran into the same issue

 

thanks, i will have to try that in the morning. sounds like it could i just don't want to damage the new ball joint

 

they tend to spin when you are using hand tools. if you have an impact, you can hit it with that and it'll tighten up. otherwise, just put a little pressure on it as said. it won't hurt it.