Front CV axles, seals questions.

Discovered tonight that my drivers side CV to front diff seal is leaking like crazy. Left a puddle on the ground tonight when I parked it on pavement, which I almost never do. Looks like its been leaking for a while as there is a lot of caked on grease and dirt on that side of the diff.

I was planning on replacing the inner tie rod end on that side this week anyway as its totally shot. (I can rock the wheel left and right about an inch with it jacked up.

Anyway, the previous owner included a new CV axle with the truck as he bought a pair but only replaced the passenger side before selling it to me. The drivers side axle is leaking grease and since it has to be removed anyway to replace the seal now is as good of a time as any to just replace the axle since I have one. (I do have some vibrations in the front end that could be CV related or could be the tie-rod end, or tires, one thing at a time)

So I have two questions. The first is that innboard CV hub seems to wiggle a lot in the diff. Not the CV joint but the solid 'canister' section that splines into the diff as if that connection is loose. Is that normal or does that mean my diff bearings are shot? Both sides seem to wiggle like this so I'm hoping that is normal. I've replaced CV's on other vehicles before but there where always 'outies' in that they had a stub shaft that came out of the diff that the CV slide over rather than a spline on the CV that stuck into the gear inside the diff.

Second, any tricks to replacing that seal? Seals are the bane of my mechanics skill. I'd rather pull an engine than replace a seal as I can never seem to know when they will work or not work and the failed ones never look different from the new ones to me so I still never really understand how a good one works and a bad one doesn't.

 

I just changed my drivers side axle seal about a week ago. Very simple just like any other seal imo. Nothing to it really just unbolt the lower ball joint from the control arm instead of popping the ball joint out. To save the ball joint, from there it's quite easy to see what needs to be done. I just happened to use the old seal to drive the new one very gently but firmly lol. But as far play going into the diff I didnt seem to notice any substantial play in it. I would say yoy.might have another issue. I could be wrong though as I've been wrong before. Also while you're on the steering rack take a good look at the bushings holding to the cross member mine are shot and I believe that's where im getting a little shake in the wheel, nowhere near as much as you though.

 

Did the job last night. No real difficulty although it took more force than I expected to pop the CV out and back in. I used a 2" PVC pipe coupling to drive the new seal in. Now I need to find a allen head socket to take out the fill plug and replace all the fluid I lost. Anybody know what size that is?

In a first for me, the old seal was visibly worn out. On the bottom so much rubber was worn away I could see the spring poking through.

I did the tie-rod end that same night. And when I said I could rock the wheel an inch left or right, I meant the actual truck wheel, not the steering wheel, that has no play in it.

Fixing the tie-rod end took away most of the vibration issues I was having. Oddly the worst one I have left is at about 15-20 MPH.

My center bearing is totally shot (completely broken free of the rubber) so I that is next on my list.

 

10mm Allen unless that's the drain I thought they were the same, luckily I had one for a1/2 drive, I quickly tapped my finger on my impact and broke it loose.

How is it doing the inner tie rod my rack is leaking on the passenger side, I believe that's why my bushing is shot it's soaked in oil. I would like to rebuild mine since the nuts on the lines are so rotted, and it's a boat load cheape .

 

What removal tool did you use for the seal? The play at the diff on the drivers side could be the needle bearing, ecgs makes a bushing to eliminate that. I plan on doing that bushing when I replace both my leaking cv axels, the passenger side has some play but not nearly as much as the driver side

 

I just used a screwdriver to pry it out. Wasn't difficult. Both drivers side and passengers side have about equal amounts of play in them on mine. I looked at the needle bearings which 'looked' good but did move around a bit. With nothing to compare them too though I can't say what is normal or not. Maybe I should make a video
I take it this bushing your talking about can be slide in? It looked to me like there was no way to replace the bearings without taking apart the diff.

That was no trouble at all. I took the castle nut off the outer end ball joint, screwed a solid nut over it to protect the threads and a couple good hits with a copper headed hammer and it popped right off. The boot was torn already so I cut it off. Then all I did was use a couple crescent wrenches to unscrew the tie-rod from the rack and then take it apart and replace the inner joint (used a Moog brand), slipped a new boot on, secured it with stainless steel zip ties and put the ball joint back in. Make sure to count threads on your tie-rod so I can get your alignment right when you put the new end on.

It was actually all pretty painless. One thing I like about the suspension on these trucks, everything is big and has plenty of clearance so its not too hard to get to anything.

 

Excellent what a motivation booster haha never worked on racks only replaced them. Although I'm very handy and deal with this type of stuff everyday at work just never rebuilt one.

Now all I need to do is figure out this electrical gremlin and keep moving forward on the rest of the truck.