Rear Axle Shaft Leak and Spline Damage

[dylanj17]

Hey All- I have the jeep in the garage for a suspension overhaul, and thought it would be a great time to run through everything before all of the summer wheeling trips. As I was pulling out my rear axle, I noticed the driver side has oil leaking so I just pulled the shaft and found what I was looking for plus more.

For starters, I forgot to drain my diff and made a nice mess of oil all over the garage when I pulled the shaft .

Then as I was pulling out the shaft, I immediately saw a cookie crumb size ball of metal sitting on the tip of the splines.... see below photos of the cookie crumb's damage.

I was already thinking about upgrading to some chromoly shafts rather than trying to replace the seal, but I am already a neck deep into all of the suspension and I have a baby on the way so trying to weigh the pro/cons. Anyone ever change the seal? How hard is it? Looks like the $450 for spicer chromoly shafts is well worth the headache. Plus some back up shafts for the bigger trips like the Rubicon is enticing.

Anything to be worried about about as far as gears?

On a last note, it looks like there something unhappy just inside of the diff, tried to take some pics, but can't tell what it is.

Any thoughts or guidance is greatly appreciated!

x

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[BDinTX]

I keep looking at your pics hoping somebody that knows something can reply. I'm planning to do my ball joints soon and worried I'll take out an axle seal. Did you learn anything about replacing a seal yet?

 

[azwjowner]

I wouldn't replace just the seal given the damage to the splines there. I'd replace the whole axle assembly.

Regardless, although replacing just a seal is relatively easy, it pretty much requires a hydraulic press. You have to slide or cut off the ring, bearing, and seal off the old shaft (don't damage the shaft!), remove the retainer plate and swap it onto the new axle shaft, then install the seal, bearing, and ring (all new parts, don't reuse anything) in that order. It's just sliding things on and off, but you need several tons of force to press the bearing on.

 

[AlphaWrangler]

i wish mine looked like this. the axle/side gear decided to duke it out and about half the splines are machined completely down and the other half are on their way. Need to stop dropping the clutch at 4k rpm.

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