rear axle pinion shaft oil seal

[Hursty]

I have just filled the diff with some light gear oil as i have been having a problem with noise from rear of car. Most of it came pouring out of the pinion shaft oil seal. I believe this is a common problem. Is the oil seal a straight forward job to replace or is it common practice to put a heavy oil or even a grease like lubricant if such a thing is on the market. If it is a staight forward seal replacement, what oil is the best to use.

[Rog]

I have just filled the diff with some light gear oil as i have been having a problem with noise from rear of car. Most of it came pouring out of the pinion shaft oil seal. I believe this is a common problem. Is the oil seal a straight forward job to replace or is it common practice to put a heavy oil or even a grease like lubricant if such a thing is on the market. If it is a staight forward seal replacement, what oil is the best to use.

 

I think light oil is the last thing you want in your differential due to the extreme pressures at work. I believe that an SAE 90 EP is the thing. This won't do anything to cure a leaking seal of course and I'll leave it to those who have tackled the job to offer guidance.

 

Best of luck

 

Rog

[Richard Crawley]

As Rog says you must use the correct oil in the diff unit or you’re likely to permanently damage the crown wheel & pinion; it’s an Extreme Pressure oil, 90 EP or Hypoy 90.

 

The seal is relatively easy to change but you have to remove the pinion nut, & dig out the old seal first; difficult to do with the diff unit on the car! The original seal is leather & they must be soaked in oil for 48 hours before fitting so the leather absorbs the oil otherwise the leather will burn & it will leak from day one. They still leak to lesser or grater extent though so do yourself a favour & fit a modern rubber lip seal; any bearing stockist will supply one the correct size but the specialist suppliers may well stock them now. Changing the seal won't quieten the unit down though!

[88V8]

Agree with Richard that it's very hard to get the seal out with the unit on the car. In fact, if it's an OE seal, it's very hard to get it out, full stop ! My seal ripper wouldn't shift it, I had to resort to a small sharp cold chisel to cut the seal casing.

Diff out, I'm afraid.

I got mine out using a Dexion cradle that clamps around the jack, this makes it a lot easier, the diff is jolly heavy...

 

And while it's out have a good listen and shake at the pinion bearing, if the bearing's worn it will destroy the new seal in no time.

 

Moss do replacement seals, btw, and probably the other TR specialists. Knock it in flush with a hardwood block.

 

You'll need to remove the pinion flange, to do this you'll have to lock up the output flanges. You can do it by bolting bits of Dexion together, I would post a pic but Photobucket is playing silly Bs. Edit - like this..

 

Edit - The pinion flange - there is a tightening torque in the Brown Bible, but that's the torque for a new assy, to ensure that when the new bearing is bedded in there will still be sufficient preload. So, what I did - and someone will pipe up if it was wrong - before undoing the pinion nut I checked how much torque remains by gradually increasing the setting on my torque wrench until it just started to move the nut without clicking off. Then when I replaced the nut I retightened to that same torque.

From memory it was about 65ft lb compared to a 'new' setting of 85ft lb (85 or whatever).

So what I'm saying is, don't retighten to the 'as new' torque.

 

Ivor

Edited October 24, 2008 by 88V8

[88V8]

Thanks to Stan, managed to add some pics...

[wheeler]

Hi Hursty

 

Diff oil seals etc. on ebay looks like a reasonable price see http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TR4A-IRS-TR5-TR6-DIF...id=p3286.c0.m14

 

Cheers

 

Bill

[TR6 Poor]

As Richard said, fixing the seal won't get rid of the noise, Most likely the diff. is destroyed from lack of oil. It would not be wise to just put a seal in. If you remove it from the car to put the seal in, it is easy to get the rear cover off and look inside.