The rear of my car is splattered with nasty gear oil. I think the pinion seal was ruined before i replaced the steel driveshaft and the vibrations killed it.

Ebay has new pinion seals for pretty cheap but how hard are they to replace? just a matter of removing the yoke bolt and yoke itself?

i also found this writeup on google about jeeps. simlilar?
http://www.jeepingsingles.net/tech/pinionseal.asp


edit: i finally found a quick lil writeup so the process seems simple.
but my new question is: do i need a new pinion bolt? i just read that they stretch once removed and wont stay firmly inplace when put back on.. true??

 

Your going to need a Crush washer. Then your going to need a Torque wrench that you can measure the drag on the pinion in order to get the right pinion pressure. Your going to have to get the correct pinion depth. Your going to need a pinion depth tool (Summit= $115). Then you have to measure the backlash and make sure everything is fine and the pinion and ring are not to close or far. Just a couple .0001's and the stress on the ring and pinion will be to great and cause it to blow up. Its not as easy as it seems. It takes time. Took me about 4-6 hours of actual work. And once you have it all opened up you should replace all the bearings. Its worth doing it the first time.

 

When I did mine, I removed the DS counted the threads on the bolt and then zipped off the nut with my impact. Replaced seal, then yoke and tightened back down to the same number of threads. If no impact gun then use a torque wrench and increase the torque until you break it loose. Once broken loose you know the torque and can just re-torque it back on when your done.

 

Thats very risky, And I would not recommend it.

 

thanks for the replies but i shouldn have to open up the rear to replace the front pinion seal. the steps should be similar to the jeep writeup from above correct?

 

Some people have gotten by, by marking the nut position to the pinion and noting the number of threads exposed, then reinstalling the nut back to the same position after the seal is replaced. It is a bit of a risk, but may work.

 

Does anyone have the socket size for the pinion nut? i would hate to get under there, remove the DS and relize i dont have the correct socket. thanks again.

 

Not positive, but I think it's 1.25"

 

Just bought a Chiltons Manual and they have a pretty decent writeup on the seal replacement but still no confirmed socket size.