how hard is it to change a seal in the front ..
drop the drive shaft, mark the nut on the pinion with a crayon as you have to torque it down in the EXACT position it came off of as that nut determines the preload on the inner and outer pinion bearings. The nut it torqued down from the factory and it crushes the crush collar. Once you remove the nut it takes all the preload off the bearings. Preload is essential for the durability of the rear. Once you have thet nut off remove the yoke, the yoke should just slide off but sometimes it sticks and you may have to use a bearing puller, once that is off, pry the seal off, as you see on the new seal there will be a spring around the rubber portion keeping the seal tight on the pinion, when you remove the old seal make sure it has this spring, sometimes the cause of a leaky seal is because this spring heats up and breaks, then you will have to go find it in the rear by pulling off the inspection cover. Lubricate the inside of the seal and tap it into place, put the yoke on and put the nut back in its EXACT place, install the driveshaft check fluid level
No problem, what I forgot to mention, but you probably already know, always put the driveshaft back in the way it came out, mark the u-joint with a crayon if you have to, I have heard if you put the driveshaft back in 180 degrees from how it was removed it could give off a vibration. I have never experianced this because I always mark the driveshaft to avoid this. I dont know why this would happen because the driveshaft is supposed to be balanced but I have heard it thats all. Same reason you mark brake roters before cutting them, so that they go back on in the same position to keep them from warping again, dont know if this is true, just how I have been taught by the GOMF (and if you dont know what a GOMF is it stands for Grumpy Old Mother Fu*cker, thats my Dad, he was an A tech for Oldsmobile/Chevrolet for 25 years and his sons get smacked when we dont put parts back on correctly like when I rebuilt the carb in my 85 monte carlo SS and I couldnt figure out where those little needle valves went until i tried to start the car, but hey, thats how ya learn, and nothing says learning experiance like a carburator on fire and a pissed off GOMF smacking your head as you run for the fire extinguisher) And when you torque the pinion nut back on to its EXACT position if your not sure if its lined up EXACT by eye its always good to go a little tighter to make sure that the crush collar has the preload it needs. And when i say tighter I mean ever so slightly.
Last edited by alamantia; Nov 29, 2006 at 12:57 PM.
