Hey Guys, another day, another problem.

i recently replaced the ball joints and outer tie rod ends on both sides and in the process must've damaged my passenger axle seal because now I'm losing diff fluid at the axle tube.

ball joints and tie rods are the hardest jobs i've done. I've read that the passenger side seal isn't that bad. pavementsucks has a write up on doing both axle seals and says the passenger side can be knocked into the CAD area and reseated from there without having to drop the carrier. Has anyone done just the passenger and can tell me how hard a job it is for a fairly competent one-man team?

Is it as simple as
1. remove tire, caliper, rotor, hub, axle shaft
2. knock old seal into CAD area, remove old seal
3. install new seal.
4. install tire, caliper, rotor, hub, axle shaft

 

Pretty much. The tricky part is installing the new seal..... no room for a seal driver and hammer, so, you need to come up with something to pull it into place. There is a special tool for just such a purpose, but, most folks just make something up out of threaded rod, and some nuts and washers of the right size.

 

+1 on the use of the threaded rod, nuts and washers. Luckily, I have a good friend that has a lathe and a Bridgeport and he made me up a seal puller puck to install the seal, very similar to the one sold by Quad4x4. For more info, see the links below - the first is a You Tube video of the seal replacement process and the second is a link to Quad 4x4's site for their Dodge seal related products:


http://www.quad4x4.com/DodgeDana60fr...997.html#Seals

With time, patience and a few tools, the seal replacement job isn't too bad..

 

Give it a few days for the oil to run out of the tube. Some oil will have leaked into the tube when the shaft was out and it will take a few days for it all to come out. Seals might be fine.

 

Here is the home-made tool in case anyone was wondering:


I plan on doing this this weekend or so. Any idea if the driver's side seal's fail much. Everywhere I've been looking people are replacing the passenger side. This is on an 01 with 115k miles.

 

+1 on wait a few days to see if your drainage is just runoff from pulling the axle. but do monitor oil level in the diff. no need to overfill it...

someone posted that they used a seal driver from a harbor freight kit, and only had to grind off a smidgen for it to clear the seal cavity on the inside of the cad. the harbor freight kit is pretty cheap, something like 20-30 bucks. that would be a lot easier than my approach where i welded a smaller washer over a larger washer and then had to grind it down to fit inside the cad.