rear axle leak

i just purchased a 95 t100 4x4 with 230,000 with a blown head gasket. . I had the 3.4 rebuilt and replaced the rear axle bearings and seals along with all four rear u joints. my rear passenger side axle is now leaking fuild. the wheel cylinder, brakes and backing plate are dry. it is coming from a hole in the axle flange between the wheel studs and passing through a hole in the brake drum and then onto my inner rim. any one have any thoughts. thanks randy


no one seems to have an answer!!! i checked with toyota. i was told that i have a bad rear axle seal. they said it is a toyota designed so that you don't get oil on your brake shoes.

i just purchased a 95 t100 4x4 with 230,000 with a blown head gasket. . I had the 3.4 rebuilt and replaced the rear axle bearings and seals along with all four rear u joints. my rear passenger side axle is now leaking fuild. the wheel cylinder, brakes and backing plate are dry. it is coming from a hole in the axle flange between the wheel studs and passing through a hole in the brake drum and then onto my inner rim. any one have any thoughts. thanks randy


no one seems to have an answer!!! i checked with toyota. i was told that i have a bad rear axle seal. they said it is a toyota designed so that you don't get oil on your brake shoes.

The seal can be distorted easily when it's driven in to the housing causing it to be slightly elliptical=bad. It's not hard to do that. The seal can also be damaged when inserting the axle into the housing. It's a bit awkward. Sounds like you have a redo on your hands. Take a look at the retainer ring for burrs. It should've been pressed on with a sleeve, but I've seen some use a socket=bad. Could cause a burr. BTW, the retainer should be new, not re-used as it serves as the sealing surface to the inner seal.

Both of mine are starting to weep into the brakes - left side is very minor but the right side leaked enough to gum up the brake surface. I replaced the brakes and switched to 85w-140 in the axle for now. The seals are cheap enough but what a pain to change them! Looks like I've got to buy a press and it will run about $60 per bearing if I need them. Anyone seen anything on the web where someone has written up the process of replacing them?

I had to change my rear seals 3 times both sides finally changed diff. vent and problem was solved in my 96 t 4x4

I suspected that vent when I noticed they don't use a long hose like other trucks. I gave mine a giggle and it didn't budge so I worked it loose and got the vent cap to spin freely - but I'll probably just take it off and clean it out with brake cleaner tonight.

check the rearend vent,i got leaks on both my trucks from dirt blocking the vent,also run wire down the hole after you have the vent out,never over look the easy stuff

Thanks for the reply, I think I had a couple things going on. The vent was definitely plugged up so cleaning it out helped (I just removed it and cleaned it with brake cleaner to be sure it was good-to-go). But I also had a more serious problem, I had over-adjusted my rear brakes when I put new shoes on. They were rubbing all the time once they heated up and that (I think) caused the gear oil to heat up, create gases that couldn't vent (because of the plugged breather, and blow past the seal into the drum. Once I backed the brakes off (I had to replace the shoes on one side because they had oil in them) and cleaned out the breather the leak went away. I checked it every thousand miles or so and it looked good.

But you're totally right, it's easy to over think the problem and focus on the complicated rather than the simple solutions.