Hey guys so I replaced both the hubs and axle shaft u-joints. Passenger one was no good, but got a slight problem gear oil is leaking out of the right tube. So I'm gonna buy the tool I guess because I know its the seal behind the CAD since I didn't take out the intermediate shaft. Driver side is fine so the seals by the diff are fine. My question is does the intermediate shaft slide right out? I don't really want to drop the diff cover as I don't trust myself to mess around with the gears and everything.

 

Yes, the intermediate shaft slides out pretty easily. You can gain a bit of access to it through the CAD opening.

 

Awesome just wanted to confirm thanks man. At least everything will come apart nice and easy for me since I did the hub. What are the odds of me damaging the seal that the intermediate shaft goes through? Should be fine right since I'm able to guide it through right there. I should've used a big flathead to guide in the outter shaft hadn't thought about it at the time though. Didn't hold it up enough to avoid the seal

 

Once you replace the 20+ year old seal, you should be fine. There is just a seal there for the outer axle and a bushing that the intermediate shaft rides on.

 

Ohh okay yea that makes more sense that it rides on a bushing since oil has to pass through to the actuator.

 

If the bushing is worn you'll oval the new seal in short order. I'd at least be prepared with a part # and source for the bushing if you need it.

 

The bushing looks fine from what I can see I already had the actuator off and took a look inside. I'm sure it's relatively hard for them to go bad considering they're consistently lubricated with gear oil without any foreign objects having access to the bushing as well.

 

It's my experience as well that the bushing tends to hold up very well, unless the differential experienced something like low gear lube or a bearing pinion/carrier bearing failure. I had purchased a new bushing when I replaced my axle seal, but the bushing in my Dana 60 looked great and didn't need changing. The axle seal, on the other hand, was hard and needed replacement.

 

I'll order one anyways I guess just in case its only $15 Yukon has them all the Dana axles take the same bushing right? Advance sells the Yukon one, but it says Dana 30 and 44. Before when I looked it up it said Dana 30, 44, and 60 part # 18060. I have never ran the diff low I haven't been driving the truck as soon as I noticed the seal let loose by the CAD. It lost a good amount of gear oil, but not enough to significantly damage the diff. I just didn't want to take the risk though I've had the truck off the road for about 4 months now so I can wait a little longer I tried to take it to get an alignment, but that was around the time the seal let loose. I replaced the control arms, leaf springs shackles, front fenders, the bed, redid the frame as well from the fuel tank back while I dropped the tank and had the bed off.

 

I looked up the seal you need and you need the BOM(Bills of Material) # on your axle to look up the part #
"48 -(2) Oil Seal - Outer Tube (2) See "Variable Parts Table" within this section"