ghardester

I took my car in to my local hot rod shop today, the only place I trust to do the things I'm not set up to do, and have the pinion seal replaced. The part they got from the local GM dealer was one piece, but he called and said mine has 2 pieces. They called back and asked if mine was the original rear end. My car was made late in July 2002, has the Thorsen rear end and I bought it when it only had 14,000 miles on it and it appeared to be bone stock, so I don't think the rear end was changed. I read on here that the late production cars have a different pinion seal.

Is this true? Anybody know what part numbers? NAPA had a one piece but I want mine fixed with the correct parts. I'm asking for a little expert help in case Monday rolls around and they still can't find the correct parts.

I read on a post here part number 12471523 and 12479332 as pinion and yoke seals. Is that what I need or is there a special 2 piece seal that only came on some late production models.

ghardester

Anybody

BJM

iTrader: (1)

I don't see how a pinion seal could be a 2 piece design. It drives into the front face of the housing, there is no parting line like a creankshaft has.

There are 2 designs for the seal however. I had the bigger one on the right. Down below you can see the sleeve pressed on over my pinion. Maybe this is the two pieces your shop is referring to.

LSGunZ28

iTrader: (8)

Kind of unrelated, but on my 2002 M6 Z28, they put the wrong pinion seal on and it would leak, but this was the replacement Moser 12 bolt and not the stock 10 bolt...

ghardester

Thanks for the pictures BJM. The shop my car is at is one of the best in the area and he's been working with both of the GM dealers here to get the right part. I trust him and know he'll treat me right. He told me today that there is a number on one piece that doesn't reference to anything that should be in there. The GM boys suggested that it may be a factory "anomaly", meaning they don't know. Or maybe there was a part substituted during assembly, or WTF ever.

We are putting in a new pinon gear and the proper seal to match tomorrow. I will ask for the old parts back and maybe I can shed some light on the mystery in case it pops up again with someone else. Maybe there were part substitutions very late in the last year of production.

According to the CarFax I ran on it after I bought the car it sat on a lot unsold new for a long time, was sold to one owner who put 6k miles on it and another who put 7k on it. It was soo clean when I got it at 14k that it was indistiguishable from new. I could find no flaws, scratches, wear. Still had original tires with most of the tread. Jack never been removed, etc.

I suppose one of the owners could have blown the rear and had parts put in but all indications did not look like anyone even drove it.

If I find the answers, I'll post up.

jetlag

iTrader: (32)

I bought a Moser gear install kit, and it came with the wrong seal and the gear installer didn't know it was different. My car poured all the fluid out so I had to go to GM and get the right seal and spend even more money getting it replaced..hah

So that's another piece of advice..don't use the Moser seal.

02T/A-WS6

iTrader: (4)

I just had my pinion seal replaced in my 02 and the first one they put in was completely wrong because it was dripping out just sitting there. So the auto store down the road(different place than the first place) sent down a new seal which was different. Put that in and no problems. Either way it is still a one piece.

ghardester

Well the 2 part seal they were refering to at the shop were the pinion seal and the yoke seal? Here are my returned parts after install. They both came right off the yoke so they thought it was a 2 part seal. Am I correct that the part that goes on the yoke first should be pressed on and not just come off with the seal? Got a new yolk and seal and whole job was $264 including the install and shop time. So like I said, they weren't trying to take advantage of me.

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BJM

iTrader: (1)

In the pictures I posted above, the piece pressed on over the yoke does not budge, it is pressed on firmly.

ghardester

That's what I thought. Apparently mine came off with the seal leading the shop to the "2 part" seal idea. Probably why it started to leak.

Thanks for your help.