?????Dana 35 pinion oil seal?????

[Todd~Rod]

After going through my haynes manual and not finding anything on how to replace the pinion seal on my front end i was wondering if anyone could help me out on the steps and specs i need to replace the seal?????

 

[MAKG]

That's because doing it right requires replacing the crush washer, and that is beyond Haynes' audience.

The simple answer is to find a donor pumpkin with the same gear ratio and replace the whole thing. OR take it to a rear end shop.

 

[Todd~Rod]

Ahhhh i see....thanks for the input. So its basically the crush washer that fails to make the seal leak??

 

[MAKG]

No, the crush washer is what you need to put it back together correctly.

Though it MIGHT be leaking because the pinion bearings are loose (not good).

 

[Todd~Rod]

Well i haven't torn it apart yet to take a look at it, just spent yesterday replacing all new wheel bearings, drive shaft, and drive shaft seal. I have the seal and will get the crush washer to put it back together correctly, just wanted the steps in doing so.

 

[Evan]

Here's how to do it:

Remove the pinion lock nut
Pull off the input yoke
Pry out the old seal
Pound the new seal in with a seal driver or rubber mallet
Replace yoke
Put RED locktite on the threads and torque the locknut to 180 ft. lbs.

I have done this on many diffs with 100% success. There is a slight chance you could end up with the wrong preload which could potentially destroy the diff. In that case you're out a $10 seal and will need to pick up a new diff at the yard, which you would need to do anyway if you don't change the seal yourself. People will tell you that you can't do this but as said, I have done it on many different diffs.

 

[Evan]

Well i haven't torn it apart yet to take a look at it, just spent yesterday replacing all new wheel bearings, drive shaft, and drive shaft seal. I have the seal and will get the crush washer to put it back together correctly, just wanted the steps in doing so.

If you want to set the preload up again with a new crush washer, you will need an in. lb. torque wrench and the preload spec for this diff (old bearing spec). Setting the preload is a fairly involved process. There are some guides in the Tech Library on gear setup that you should read. It would be too much typing here.

I would personally recommend what I did in my last post. People are going to come on here and disagree with me, so it's your call.

 

[88mudder]

count the threads on the pinion before removing the nut, install the nut with the same amount of threads on the end.

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

I usually take a center punch and mark the pinion and the nut, impact it off, change the seal, impact it on and sneak up on it untill you just have no play in the pinion and the marks line up. DO it like that at work all the time. Takes 15-20 minutes. Don't forget the RED locktight as Evan mentioned. I don't know why everyone is so paranoid about changing a pinion seal.....

 

[Todd~Rod]

Well i'm having mixed thoughts about doing this. One person tells me i should take it to a shop that there is too much involved and another says its cake???? I'm up for the challenge as long as i can do it and do it right and not screw up my front pig.

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

I do probably 3 or 4 a week the way I stated above, never had a problem with one yet.

 

[Evan]

Well i'm having mixed thoughts about doing this. One person tells me i should take it to a shop that there is too much involved and another says its cake???? I'm up for the challenge as long as i can do it and do it right and not screw up my front pig.

Two people say it's cake.

 

[racinranger]

i do them the same way run the nut off replace the seal run the nut back on align the marks fill the diff and send em. I do it on new cars underwarrenty and ford buys the repair as an acceptable practice. if ford buys the claim and says its ok then its ok. Hell the ford shop manual never tells you to replace the crush collar and all that nonsense. YOU could screw up YOUR diff if YOU crank the nut down to much and mess it up. but for someone with experience as a technician its an extremely common practice to seal swap them with nothing more.

 

[Todd~Rod]

i noticed then i looked at it that the seal is a 1/8" of the case its not seated the whole way on, i'm going to check if the pinion is loose in there too.