axle seal leak

[Greasygreg]

The left axle seal on my truck is leaking (again).I repaired this leak about six months ago,by pulling the axle and changing the outer seal, and it kept the 90 wt. out of my brakes for awhile, but now the leak is anew!I read somwhere that there was a tsb on this or does anyone know of a better quality seal than the one the local napa chain sells?

[Greasygreg]

Anybody?

[smasheromalley]

Unless you messed up the seal while installing it or the seal was defective... the only reason I know to have one fail like that would be if the bearing was going bad too. (Either that or it is a ford sterling ff axle which eat seals like potato chips )

Any noise from that area?

[reb]

Is the axle bent?

[Hermit]

It could be that you damaged the seal when you replaced it. I'm not knocking your mechanical ability cause these things happen to the best of us. Its just one possible reason for the leak. Another thing that would cause premature seal wear is if the axle has a burr on it or wear grooves in the area that the seal seats in. I have seen this before on more than one occassion.

One other thing that would cause your seal to leak is if it was contaminated by grit or dirt when it was installed. Again I'm not questioning your work ability, just giving all the reasons I can think of that would cause your problem. Did you grease the inside of the seal before you installed it?

Hope some of these ideas help you out! Let us know what you find.

*HERMIT* the T-Tech
"OH WHAT-A-FEELIN"
91 TOYOTA 4X4 DLX V6 5SPD X-CAB--*MODS TO COME SOOOON*!!

[Greasygreg]

Well, the alxe is not NOTICABLY bent (ran truck with wheels off and held screwdriver out),I never thought to grease the seal while installing it, i guess thats a good idea when i replace it tomorrow,I remember looking for wear, but didnt see anything unusual...think i'll do all the above but hold off replacin the unworn contaminated brakes untill im sure the leak is gone,Anybody have access to toyota technical service bullitens( tsb's?) i read about this somewhere but i was on computer at work when i saw it.

[Hermit]

I'll look into the service bulliten and see what I can find. When you install the new seal just be sure to do a good inspection. Make sure that the seal does not get bent or out of round when you install it or it will definitely leak again. Grease the inside of the seal and make sure the outside is perfectly clean. If you get grease on the outside of the seal it will pop out and not stay seated.
One last note about the brake shoes. Be sure that you clean them and the drum very well with brake clean and then scuff the surface of the shoes with 80 grit sand paper. Gear lube is near impossible to remove from saturated brake liners. You may be able to get by until you know if the seal is leaking though the brake may grab a bit more than the others do.
I hope this helps you out and good luck. Post the results and let us know how it goes!
I'll check into that bulliten!
*HERMIT* the T-TECH
"OH WHAT-A-FEELIN"
91 TOYOTA DLX 4x4 x-cab v6 5spd "MANY MODS SOOOON TO COME"

[Greasygreg]

well, i pulled the axle out today and re-examined the situation.I see many light grooves on the surface of the axle where the seal rides against it but saw no burrs.my truck has 85k on it,and while i dont have a micrometer,the wear looks...well.. worn.the bearing stays on the axle when removed,and while it seemed to turn smoothly,it occurs to me that the placement of the bearing on the outside of the seal might affect its longeviety.seal itself uses a tightly coiled spring to squish the rubber of the seal around the shaft to keep the oil in.I'll drive it for a week,pull the drum off and post again.Hermit, i would appreciate it if you let me know about the tsb.I think i saw that in dealerworld,and i cant get there on home computer.

[reb]

I have successfully replaced seals with those light grooves on the axle. I just didn't seat the seal completely, so it rode on a different place.